Many years ago in a small Indian village, a farmer had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender.
The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer's beautiful daughter. So he proposed a bargain.
He said he would forgo the farmer's debt if he could marry his daughter.
Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by the proposal. So the cunning money-lender suggested 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.
Then the girl would have to pick one pebble from the bag.
1) If she picked the black pebble, she would become his wife and her father's debt would be forgiven.
2) If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father's debt would still be forgiven.
3) But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail.
They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the farmer's field. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick a pebble from the bag.
Now, imagine that you were standing in the field.
What would you have done if you were the girl?
If you had to advise her, what would you have told her?
Careful analysis would produce three possibilities:
1. The girl should refuse to take a pebble.
2. The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the money-lender as a cheat.
3. The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment.
Take a moment to ponder over the story. The above story is used with the hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between lateral and logical thinking. The girl's dilemma cannot be solved with traditional logical thinking. Think of the consequences if she chooses the above logical answers.
What would you recommend to the Girl to do?
Well, here is what she did ....
The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.
"Oh, how clumsy of me," she said. "But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked."
Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the money-lender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one.
MORAL OF THE STORY:
Most complex problems do have a solution. It is only that we don't attempt to think.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Journey
Vivek Pradhan wasn't a happy man. Even the plush comfort of the First Class air-conditioned compartment of the Shatabdi Express couldn't cool his frayed nerves. He was the Project Manager and entitled to air travel. It was not the prestige he sought, he had tried to reason with the admin guy, it was the savings in time. A PM had so many things to do! He opened his case and took out the laptop, determined to put the time to some good use.
"Are you from the software industry sir," the man beside him was staring appreciatively at the laptop.
Vivek glanced briefly and mumbled in affirmation, handling the laptop now with exaggerated care and importance as if it were an expensive car.
"You people have brought so much advancement to the country sir. Today everything is getting computerized."
'Thanks," smiled Vivek, turning around to give the man a detailed look. He always found it difficult to resist appreciation. The man was young and stocky like a sportsman. He looked simple and strangely out of place in that little lap of luxury like a small town boy in a prep school. He probably was a Railway sportsman making the most of his free traveling pass. "You people always amaze me," the man continued, "You sit in an office and write something on a computer and it does so many big things outside."
Vivek smiled deprecatingly. Naivety demanded reasoning not anger. "It is not as simple as that my friend. It is not just a question of writing a few lines. There is a lot of process that goes behind it." For a moment he was tempted to explain the entire Software Development Lifecycle but restrained himself to a single statement. "It is complex, very complex." "It has to be. No wonder you people are so highly paid," came the reply.
This was not turning out as Vivek had thought. A hint of belligerence came into his so far affable, persuasive tone.
"Everyone just sees the money. No one sees the amount of hard work we have to put in." "Hard work!" "Indians have such a narrow concept of hard work. Just because we sit in an air-conditioned office doesn't mean our brows don't sweat. You exercise the muscle; we exercise the mind and believe me that is no less taxing." He had the man where he wanted him and it was time to drive home the point.
"Let me give you an example. Take this train. The entire railway reservation system is computerized. You can book a train ticket between any two stations from any of the hundreds of computerized booking centers across the country.
Thousands of transactions accessing a single database at a given time; concurrency, data integrity, locking, data security. Do you understand the complexity in designing and coding such a system?"
The man was stuck with amazement, like a child at a planetarium. This was something big and beyond his imagination.
"You design and code such things."
"I used to," Vivek paused for effect, "But now I am the project manager,"
"Oh!" sighed the man, as if the storm had passed over, "so your life is easy now."
It was like being told the fire was better than the frying pan. The man had to be given a feel of the heat. "Oh come on, does life ever get easy as you go up the ladder. Responsibility only brings more work. Design and coding! That is the easier part. Now I don't do it, but I am responsible for it and believe me, that is far more stressful. My job is to get the work done in time and with the highest quality. And to tell you about the pressures! There is the customer at one end always changing his requirements, the user wanting something else and your boss always expecting you to have finished it yesterday."
Vivek paused in his diatribe, his belligerence fading with self-realisation. What he had said was not merely the outburst of a wronged man, it was the truth. And one need not get angry while defending the truth. "My friend," he concluded triumphantly, "you don't know what it is to be in the line of fire."
The man sat back in his chair, his eyes closed as if in realization. When he spoke after sometime, it was with a calm certainty that surprised Vivek.
"I know sir, I know what it is to be in the line of fire," He was staring blankly as if no passenger, no train existed, just a vast expanse of time.
"There were 30 of us when we were ordered to capture Point 4875 in the cover of the night. The enemy was firing from the top. There was no knowing where the next bullet was going to come from and for whom. In the morning when we finally hoisted the tricolor at the top only 4 of us were alive."
"You are a..."
"I am Subedar Sushant Singh from the 13 J&K Rifles on duty at Peak 4875 in Kargil. They tell me I have completed my term and can opt for a land assignment. But tell me sir, can one give up duty just because it makes life easier. On the dawn of that capture one of my colleagues lay injured in the snow, open to enemy fire while we were hiding behind a bunker. It was my job to go and fetch that soldier to safety. But my captain refused me permission and went ahead himself. He said that the first pledge he had taken as a Gentleman Cadet was to put the safety and welfare of the nation foremost followed by the safety and welfare of the men he commanded. His own personal safety came last, always and every time. He was killed as he shielded that soldier into the bunker. Every morning now as I stand guard I can see him taking all those bullets, which were actually meant for me. I know sir, I know what it is to be in the line of fire."
Vivek looked at him in disbelief not sure of his reply. Abruptly he switched off the laptop. It seemed trivial, even insulting to edit a word document in the presence of a man for whom valor and duty was a daily part of life; a valor and sense of duty which he had so far attributed only to epical heroes.
The train slowed down as it pulled into the station and Subedar Sushant Singh picked up his bags to alight.
"It was nice meeting you sir."
Vivek fumbled with the handshake. This was the hand that had climbed mountains, pressed the trigger and hoisted the tricolor. Suddenly as if by impulse he stood at attention, and his right hand went up in an impromptu salute.
"Are you from the software industry sir," the man beside him was staring appreciatively at the laptop.
Vivek glanced briefly and mumbled in affirmation, handling the laptop now with exaggerated care and importance as if it were an expensive car.
"You people have brought so much advancement to the country sir. Today everything is getting computerized."
'Thanks," smiled Vivek, turning around to give the man a detailed look. He always found it difficult to resist appreciation. The man was young and stocky like a sportsman. He looked simple and strangely out of place in that little lap of luxury like a small town boy in a prep school. He probably was a Railway sportsman making the most of his free traveling pass. "You people always amaze me," the man continued, "You sit in an office and write something on a computer and it does so many big things outside."
Vivek smiled deprecatingly. Naivety demanded reasoning not anger. "It is not as simple as that my friend. It is not just a question of writing a few lines. There is a lot of process that goes behind it." For a moment he was tempted to explain the entire Software Development Lifecycle but restrained himself to a single statement. "It is complex, very complex." "It has to be. No wonder you people are so highly paid," came the reply.
This was not turning out as Vivek had thought. A hint of belligerence came into his so far affable, persuasive tone.
"Everyone just sees the money. No one sees the amount of hard work we have to put in." "Hard work!" "Indians have such a narrow concept of hard work. Just because we sit in an air-conditioned office doesn't mean our brows don't sweat. You exercise the muscle; we exercise the mind and believe me that is no less taxing." He had the man where he wanted him and it was time to drive home the point.
"Let me give you an example. Take this train. The entire railway reservation system is computerized. You can book a train ticket between any two stations from any of the hundreds of computerized booking centers across the country.
Thousands of transactions accessing a single database at a given time; concurrency, data integrity, locking, data security. Do you understand the complexity in designing and coding such a system?"
The man was stuck with amazement, like a child at a planetarium. This was something big and beyond his imagination.
"You design and code such things."
"I used to," Vivek paused for effect, "But now I am the project manager,"
"Oh!" sighed the man, as if the storm had passed over, "so your life is easy now."
It was like being told the fire was better than the frying pan. The man had to be given a feel of the heat. "Oh come on, does life ever get easy as you go up the ladder. Responsibility only brings more work. Design and coding! That is the easier part. Now I don't do it, but I am responsible for it and believe me, that is far more stressful. My job is to get the work done in time and with the highest quality. And to tell you about the pressures! There is the customer at one end always changing his requirements, the user wanting something else and your boss always expecting you to have finished it yesterday."
Vivek paused in his diatribe, his belligerence fading with self-realisation. What he had said was not merely the outburst of a wronged man, it was the truth. And one need not get angry while defending the truth. "My friend," he concluded triumphantly, "you don't know what it is to be in the line of fire."
The man sat back in his chair, his eyes closed as if in realization. When he spoke after sometime, it was with a calm certainty that surprised Vivek.
"I know sir, I know what it is to be in the line of fire," He was staring blankly as if no passenger, no train existed, just a vast expanse of time.
"There were 30 of us when we were ordered to capture Point 4875 in the cover of the night. The enemy was firing from the top. There was no knowing where the next bullet was going to come from and for whom. In the morning when we finally hoisted the tricolor at the top only 4 of us were alive."
"You are a..."
"I am Subedar Sushant Singh from the 13 J&K Rifles on duty at Peak 4875 in Kargil. They tell me I have completed my term and can opt for a land assignment. But tell me sir, can one give up duty just because it makes life easier. On the dawn of that capture one of my colleagues lay injured in the snow, open to enemy fire while we were hiding behind a bunker. It was my job to go and fetch that soldier to safety. But my captain refused me permission and went ahead himself. He said that the first pledge he had taken as a Gentleman Cadet was to put the safety and welfare of the nation foremost followed by the safety and welfare of the men he commanded. His own personal safety came last, always and every time. He was killed as he shielded that soldier into the bunker. Every morning now as I stand guard I can see him taking all those bullets, which were actually meant for me. I know sir, I know what it is to be in the line of fire."
Vivek looked at him in disbelief not sure of his reply. Abruptly he switched off the laptop. It seemed trivial, even insulting to edit a word document in the presence of a man for whom valor and duty was a daily part of life; a valor and sense of duty which he had so far attributed only to epical heroes.
The train slowed down as it pulled into the station and Subedar Sushant Singh picked up his bags to alight.
"It was nice meeting you sir."
Vivek fumbled with the handshake. This was the hand that had climbed mountains, pressed the trigger and hoisted the tricolor. Suddenly as if by impulse he stood at attention, and his right hand went up in an impromptu salute.
The Bet
The Bet
- Anton Chekhov
It was a dark autumn night. The old banker was pacing from corner to corner of his study, recalling to his mind the party he gave in the autumn fifteen years before. There were many clever people at the party and much interesting conversation. They talked among other things of capital punishment. The guests, among them not a few scholars and journalists, for the most part disapproved of capital punishment, found it obsolete as a means of punishment, unfitted to a Christian State, and immoral. Some of them thought that capital punishment should be replaced universally by life-imprisonment.
"I don't agree with you," said the host. "I myself have experienced neither capital punishment nor life-imprisonment, but if one may judge, a priori, then in my opinion capital punishment is more moral and more humane than imprisonment. Execution kills instantly, life-imprisonment kills by degrees. Who is the more humane executioner, one who kills you in a few seconds or one who draws the life out of you incessantly, for years?"
"They're both equally immoral," remarked one of the guests, "because their purpose is the same, to take away life. The State is not God. It has no right to take away that which it cannot give back, if it should so desire."
Among the company was a lawyer, a young man about twenty-five. On being asked his opinion, he said:
"Capital punishment and life-imprisonment are equally immoral; but if I were offered the choice between them, I would certainly choose the second. It's better to live somehow than not to live at all."
There ensued a lively discussion. The banker who was then younger and more nervous suddenly lost his temper, banged his fist on the table, and turning to the young lawyer, cried out:
"It's a lie. I bet you two millions you wouldn't stick in a cell even for five years."
"If you mean it seriously," replied the lawyer, "then I bet I'll stay not five but fifteen."
"Fifteen! Done!" cried the banker. "Gentlemen, I stake two millions."
"Agreed. You stake two millions, I my freedom," said the lawyer.
So this wild, ridiculous bet came to pass. The banker, who at that time had too many millions to count, spoiled and capricious, was beside himself with rapture. During supper he said to the lawyer jokingly:
"Come to your senses, young man, before it's too late.
Two millions are nothing to me, but you stand to lose three or four of the best years of your life. I say three or four, because you'll never stick it out any longer. Don't forget either, you unhappy man, that voluntary is much heavier than enforced imprisonment.
The idea that you have the right to free yourself at any moment will poison the whole of your life in the cell. I pity you."
And now the banker, pacing from corner to corner, recalled all this and asked himself:
"Why did I make this bet? What's the good? The lawyer loses fifteen years of his life and I throw away two millions. Will it convince people that capital punishment is worse or better than imprisonment for life? No, no! all stuff and rubbish. On my part, it was the caprice of a well-fed man; on the lawyer's, pure greed of gold."
He recollected further what happened after the evening party. It was decided that the lawyer must undergo his imprisonment under the strictest observation, in a garden wing of the banker's house. It was agreed that during the period he would be deprived of the right to cross the threshold, to see living people, to hear human voices, and to receive letters and newspapers.
He was permitted to have a musical instrument, to read books, to write letters, to drink wine and smoke tobacco. By the agreement he could communicate, but only in silence, with the outside world through a little window specially constructed for this purpose.
Everything necessary, books, music, wine, he would receive in any quantity by sending a note through the window. The agreement provided for all the minutest details, which made the confinement strictly solitary, and it obliged the lawyer to remain exactly fifteen years from twelve o'clock of November 14th, 1870, to twelve o'clock of November 14th, 1885. The least attempt on his part to violate the conditions, to escape if only for two minutes before the time, freed the banker from the obligation to pay him the two millions.
During the first year of imprisonment, the lawyer, as far as it was possible to judge from his short notes, suffered terribly from loneliness and boredom. From his wing day and night came the sound of the piano. He rejected wine and tobacco. "Wine," he wrote, "excites desires, and desires are the chief foes of a prisoner; besides, nothing is more boring than to drink good wine alone," and tobacco spoiled the air in his room.
During the first year the lawyer was sent books of a light character; novels with a complicated love interest, stories of crime and fantasy, comedies, and so on.
In the second year the piano was heard no longer and the lawyer asked only for classics. In the fifth year, music was heard again, and the prisoner asked for wine. Those who watched him said that during the whole of that year he was only eating, drinking, and lying on his bed. He yawned often and talked angrily to himself. Books he did not read. Sometimes at night he would sit down to write. He would write for a long time and tear it all up in the morning. More than once he was heard to weep.
In the second half of the sixth year, the prisoner began zealously to study languages, philosophy, and history. He fell on these subjects so hungrily that the banker hardly had time to get books enough for him. In the space of four years about six hundred volumes were bought at his request. It was while that passion lasted that the banker received the following letter from the prisoner:
"My dear jailer, I am writing these lines in six languages. Show them to experts. Let them read them.
If they do not find one single mistake, I beg you to give orders to have a gun fired off in the garden. By the noise I shall know that my efforts have not been in vain. The geniuses of all ages and countries speak in different languages; but in them all burns the same flame. Oh, if you knew my heavenly happiness now that I can understand them!" The prisoner's desire was fulfilled. Two shots were fired in the garden by the banker's order.
Later on, after the tenth year, the lawyer sat immovable before his table and read only the New Testament. The banker found it strange that a man who in four years had mastered six hundred erudite volumes, should have spent nearly a year in reading one book, easy to understand and by no means thick.
The New Testament was then replaced by the history of religions and theology.
During the last two years of his confinement the prisoner read an extraordinary amount, quite haphazard. Now he would apply himself to the natural sciences, then he would read Byron or Shakespeare.
Notes used to come from him in which he asked to be sent at the same time a book on chemistry, a text-book of medicine, a novel, and some treatise on philosophy or theology. He read as though he were swimming in the sea among broken pieces of wreckage, and in his desire to save his life was eagerly grasping one piece after another.
The banker recalled all this, and thought:
"Tomorrow at twelve o'clock he receives his freedom.
Under the agreement, I shall have to pay him two millions. If I pay, it's all over with me. I am ruined forever . . ."
Fifteen years before he had too many millions to count, but now he was afraid to ask himself which he had more of, money or debts. Gambling on the Stock-Exchange, risky speculation, and the recklessness of which he could not rid himself even in old age, had gradually brought his business to decay; and the fearless, self-confident, proud man of business had become an ordinary banker, trembling at every rise and fall in the market.
"That cursed bet," murmured the old man clutching his head in despair . . . . "Why didn't the man die? He's only forty years old. He will take away my last farthing, marry, enjoy life, gamble on the Exchange, and I will look on like an envious beggar and hear the same words from him every day: 'I'm obliged to you for the happiness of my life. Let me help you.' No, it's too much! The only escape from bankruptcy and disgrace--is that the man should die."
The clock had just struck three. The banker was listening. In the house every one was asleep, and one could hear only the frozen trees whining outside the windows. Trying to make no sound, he took out of his safe the key of the door which had not been opened for fifteen years, put on his overcoat, and went out of the house. The garden was dark and cold. It was raining. A damp, penetrating wind howled in the garden and gave the trees no rest. Though he strained his eyes, the baker could see neither the ground, nor the white statues, nor the garden wing, nor the trees.
Approaching the garden wing, he called the watchman twice. There was no answer. Evidently the watchman had taken shelter from the bad weather and was now asleep somewhere in the kitchen or the greenhouse.
"If I have the courage to fulfill my intention,"
thought the old man, "the suspicion will fall on the watchman first of all."
In the darkness he groped for the steps and the door and entered the hall of the garden-wing, then poked his way into a narrow passage and struck a match. Not a soul was there. Some one's bed, with no bedclothes on it, stood there, and an iron stove loomed dark in the corner. The seals on the door that led into the prisoner's room were unbroken.
When the match went out, the old man, trembling from agitation peeped into the little window.
In the prisoner's room a candle was burning dimly. The prisoner himself sat by the table. Only his back, the hair on his head and his hand were visible. Open books were strewn about on the table, the two chairs and on the carpet near the table.
Five minutes passed and the prisoner never once stirred. Fifteen years' confinement had taught him to sit motionless. The banker tapped on the window with his finger, but the prisoner made no movement in reply. Then the banker cautiously tore the seals from the door and put the key into the lock. The rusty lock gave a hoarse groan and the door creaked. The banker expected instantly to hear a cry of surprise and the sound of steps. Three minutes passed and it was as quite inside as it had been before. He made up his mind to enter.
Before the table sat a man, unlike an ordinary human being. It was a skeleton, with tight-drawn skin, with long curly hair like a woman's, and a shaggy beard.
The color of his face was yellow, of an earthy shade; the cheeks were sunken, the back long and narrow, and the hand upon which he leaned his hairy head was so lean and skinny that it was painful to look upon. His hair was already silvering with gray, and no one who glanced at the senile emaciation of the face would have believed that he was only forty years old. On the table, before his bended head, lay a sheet of paper on which something was written in a tiny hand.
"Poor devil," thought the banker, "he's asleep and probably seeing millions in his dreams. I have only to take and throw this half-dead thing on the bed, smother him a moment with the pillow, and the most careful examination will find no trace of unnatural death. But, first, let us read what he has written here."
The banker took the sheet from the table and read:
"Tomorrow at twelve o'clock midnight, I shall obtain my freedom and the right to mix with people. But before I leave this room and see the sun I think it necessary to say a few words to you. On my own clear conscience and before God who sees me I declare to you that I despise freedom, life, health, and all that your books call the blessings of the world."
"For fifteen years I have diligently studied earthly life. True, I saw neither the earth nor the people, but in your books I drank fragrant wine, sang songs, hunted deer and wild boar in the forests, loved women . . . . And beautiful women, like clouds ethereal, created by the magic of your poets genius, visited me by night and whispered to me wonderful tales, which made my head drunken. In your books I climbed the summits of Elbruz and Mont Blanc and saw from there how the sun rose in the morning, and in the evening suffused the sky, the ocean and the mountain ridges with a purple gold. I saw from there how above the lightning glimmered, cleaving the clouds; I saw green forests, fields, rivers, lakes, cities; I heard sirens singing, and the playing of the pipes of Pan; I touched the wings of beautiful devils who came flying to me to speak of God. . . In your books I cast myself into bottomless abysses, worked miracles, burned cities to the ground, preached new religions, conquered whole countries??
"Your books gave me wisdom. All that unwearyingly human thought created in the centuries is compressed to a little lump in my skull. I know that I am cleverer than you all.
"And I despise your books, despise all worldly blessings and wisdom. Everything is void, frail, visionary and delusive as a mirage. Though you be proud and wise and beautiful, yet will death wipe you from the face of the earth like the mice underground; and your posterity, your history, and the immortality of your men of genius will be as frozen slag, burnt down together with the terrestrial globe.
"You are mad, and gone the wrong way. You take falsehood for truth and ugliness for beauty. You would marvel if suddenly apple and orange trees should bear frogs and lizards instead of fruit, and if roses should begin to breathe the odor of a sweating horse.
So do I marvel at you, who have bartered heaven for earth. I do not want to understand you.
"That I may show you in deed my contempt for that by which you live, I waive the two millions of which I once dreamed as of paradise, and which I now despise.
That I may deprive myself of my right to them, I shall come out from here five minutes before the stipulated term, and thus shall violate the agreement."
When he had read, the banker put the sheet on the table, kissed the head of the strange man, and began to weep. He went out of the wing. Never at any other time, not even after his terrible losses on the Exchange, had he felt such contempt for himself as now. Coming home, he lay down on his bed, but agitation and tears kept him a long time from sleeping?..
The next morning the poor watchman came running to him and told him that they had seen the man who lived in the wing climb through the window into the garden. He had gone to the gate and disappeared. The banker instantly went with his servants to the wing and established the escape of his prisoner. To avoid unnecessary rumors he took the paper with renunciation from the table and, on his return, locked it in his safe.
- Anton Chekhov
It was a dark autumn night. The old banker was pacing from corner to corner of his study, recalling to his mind the party he gave in the autumn fifteen years before. There were many clever people at the party and much interesting conversation. They talked among other things of capital punishment. The guests, among them not a few scholars and journalists, for the most part disapproved of capital punishment, found it obsolete as a means of punishment, unfitted to a Christian State, and immoral. Some of them thought that capital punishment should be replaced universally by life-imprisonment.
"I don't agree with you," said the host. "I myself have experienced neither capital punishment nor life-imprisonment, but if one may judge, a priori, then in my opinion capital punishment is more moral and more humane than imprisonment. Execution kills instantly, life-imprisonment kills by degrees. Who is the more humane executioner, one who kills you in a few seconds or one who draws the life out of you incessantly, for years?"
"They're both equally immoral," remarked one of the guests, "because their purpose is the same, to take away life. The State is not God. It has no right to take away that which it cannot give back, if it should so desire."
Among the company was a lawyer, a young man about twenty-five. On being asked his opinion, he said:
"Capital punishment and life-imprisonment are equally immoral; but if I were offered the choice between them, I would certainly choose the second. It's better to live somehow than not to live at all."
There ensued a lively discussion. The banker who was then younger and more nervous suddenly lost his temper, banged his fist on the table, and turning to the young lawyer, cried out:
"It's a lie. I bet you two millions you wouldn't stick in a cell even for five years."
"If you mean it seriously," replied the lawyer, "then I bet I'll stay not five but fifteen."
"Fifteen! Done!" cried the banker. "Gentlemen, I stake two millions."
"Agreed. You stake two millions, I my freedom," said the lawyer.
So this wild, ridiculous bet came to pass. The banker, who at that time had too many millions to count, spoiled and capricious, was beside himself with rapture. During supper he said to the lawyer jokingly:
"Come to your senses, young man, before it's too late.
Two millions are nothing to me, but you stand to lose three or four of the best years of your life. I say three or four, because you'll never stick it out any longer. Don't forget either, you unhappy man, that voluntary is much heavier than enforced imprisonment.
The idea that you have the right to free yourself at any moment will poison the whole of your life in the cell. I pity you."
And now the banker, pacing from corner to corner, recalled all this and asked himself:
"Why did I make this bet? What's the good? The lawyer loses fifteen years of his life and I throw away two millions. Will it convince people that capital punishment is worse or better than imprisonment for life? No, no! all stuff and rubbish. On my part, it was the caprice of a well-fed man; on the lawyer's, pure greed of gold."
He recollected further what happened after the evening party. It was decided that the lawyer must undergo his imprisonment under the strictest observation, in a garden wing of the banker's house. It was agreed that during the period he would be deprived of the right to cross the threshold, to see living people, to hear human voices, and to receive letters and newspapers.
He was permitted to have a musical instrument, to read books, to write letters, to drink wine and smoke tobacco. By the agreement he could communicate, but only in silence, with the outside world through a little window specially constructed for this purpose.
Everything necessary, books, music, wine, he would receive in any quantity by sending a note through the window. The agreement provided for all the minutest details, which made the confinement strictly solitary, and it obliged the lawyer to remain exactly fifteen years from twelve o'clock of November 14th, 1870, to twelve o'clock of November 14th, 1885. The least attempt on his part to violate the conditions, to escape if only for two minutes before the time, freed the banker from the obligation to pay him the two millions.
During the first year of imprisonment, the lawyer, as far as it was possible to judge from his short notes, suffered terribly from loneliness and boredom. From his wing day and night came the sound of the piano. He rejected wine and tobacco. "Wine," he wrote, "excites desires, and desires are the chief foes of a prisoner; besides, nothing is more boring than to drink good wine alone," and tobacco spoiled the air in his room.
During the first year the lawyer was sent books of a light character; novels with a complicated love interest, stories of crime and fantasy, comedies, and so on.
In the second year the piano was heard no longer and the lawyer asked only for classics. In the fifth year, music was heard again, and the prisoner asked for wine. Those who watched him said that during the whole of that year he was only eating, drinking, and lying on his bed. He yawned often and talked angrily to himself. Books he did not read. Sometimes at night he would sit down to write. He would write for a long time and tear it all up in the morning. More than once he was heard to weep.
In the second half of the sixth year, the prisoner began zealously to study languages, philosophy, and history. He fell on these subjects so hungrily that the banker hardly had time to get books enough for him. In the space of four years about six hundred volumes were bought at his request. It was while that passion lasted that the banker received the following letter from the prisoner:
"My dear jailer, I am writing these lines in six languages. Show them to experts. Let them read them.
If they do not find one single mistake, I beg you to give orders to have a gun fired off in the garden. By the noise I shall know that my efforts have not been in vain. The geniuses of all ages and countries speak in different languages; but in them all burns the same flame. Oh, if you knew my heavenly happiness now that I can understand them!" The prisoner's desire was fulfilled. Two shots were fired in the garden by the banker's order.
Later on, after the tenth year, the lawyer sat immovable before his table and read only the New Testament. The banker found it strange that a man who in four years had mastered six hundred erudite volumes, should have spent nearly a year in reading one book, easy to understand and by no means thick.
The New Testament was then replaced by the history of religions and theology.
During the last two years of his confinement the prisoner read an extraordinary amount, quite haphazard. Now he would apply himself to the natural sciences, then he would read Byron or Shakespeare.
Notes used to come from him in which he asked to be sent at the same time a book on chemistry, a text-book of medicine, a novel, and some treatise on philosophy or theology. He read as though he were swimming in the sea among broken pieces of wreckage, and in his desire to save his life was eagerly grasping one piece after another.
The banker recalled all this, and thought:
"Tomorrow at twelve o'clock he receives his freedom.
Under the agreement, I shall have to pay him two millions. If I pay, it's all over with me. I am ruined forever . . ."
Fifteen years before he had too many millions to count, but now he was afraid to ask himself which he had more of, money or debts. Gambling on the Stock-Exchange, risky speculation, and the recklessness of which he could not rid himself even in old age, had gradually brought his business to decay; and the fearless, self-confident, proud man of business had become an ordinary banker, trembling at every rise and fall in the market.
"That cursed bet," murmured the old man clutching his head in despair . . . . "Why didn't the man die? He's only forty years old. He will take away my last farthing, marry, enjoy life, gamble on the Exchange, and I will look on like an envious beggar and hear the same words from him every day: 'I'm obliged to you for the happiness of my life. Let me help you.' No, it's too much! The only escape from bankruptcy and disgrace--is that the man should die."
The clock had just struck three. The banker was listening. In the house every one was asleep, and one could hear only the frozen trees whining outside the windows. Trying to make no sound, he took out of his safe the key of the door which had not been opened for fifteen years, put on his overcoat, and went out of the house. The garden was dark and cold. It was raining. A damp, penetrating wind howled in the garden and gave the trees no rest. Though he strained his eyes, the baker could see neither the ground, nor the white statues, nor the garden wing, nor the trees.
Approaching the garden wing, he called the watchman twice. There was no answer. Evidently the watchman had taken shelter from the bad weather and was now asleep somewhere in the kitchen or the greenhouse.
"If I have the courage to fulfill my intention,"
thought the old man, "the suspicion will fall on the watchman first of all."
In the darkness he groped for the steps and the door and entered the hall of the garden-wing, then poked his way into a narrow passage and struck a match. Not a soul was there. Some one's bed, with no bedclothes on it, stood there, and an iron stove loomed dark in the corner. The seals on the door that led into the prisoner's room were unbroken.
When the match went out, the old man, trembling from agitation peeped into the little window.
In the prisoner's room a candle was burning dimly. The prisoner himself sat by the table. Only his back, the hair on his head and his hand were visible. Open books were strewn about on the table, the two chairs and on the carpet near the table.
Five minutes passed and the prisoner never once stirred. Fifteen years' confinement had taught him to sit motionless. The banker tapped on the window with his finger, but the prisoner made no movement in reply. Then the banker cautiously tore the seals from the door and put the key into the lock. The rusty lock gave a hoarse groan and the door creaked. The banker expected instantly to hear a cry of surprise and the sound of steps. Three minutes passed and it was as quite inside as it had been before. He made up his mind to enter.
Before the table sat a man, unlike an ordinary human being. It was a skeleton, with tight-drawn skin, with long curly hair like a woman's, and a shaggy beard.
The color of his face was yellow, of an earthy shade; the cheeks were sunken, the back long and narrow, and the hand upon which he leaned his hairy head was so lean and skinny that it was painful to look upon. His hair was already silvering with gray, and no one who glanced at the senile emaciation of the face would have believed that he was only forty years old. On the table, before his bended head, lay a sheet of paper on which something was written in a tiny hand.
"Poor devil," thought the banker, "he's asleep and probably seeing millions in his dreams. I have only to take and throw this half-dead thing on the bed, smother him a moment with the pillow, and the most careful examination will find no trace of unnatural death. But, first, let us read what he has written here."
The banker took the sheet from the table and read:
"Tomorrow at twelve o'clock midnight, I shall obtain my freedom and the right to mix with people. But before I leave this room and see the sun I think it necessary to say a few words to you. On my own clear conscience and before God who sees me I declare to you that I despise freedom, life, health, and all that your books call the blessings of the world."
"For fifteen years I have diligently studied earthly life. True, I saw neither the earth nor the people, but in your books I drank fragrant wine, sang songs, hunted deer and wild boar in the forests, loved women . . . . And beautiful women, like clouds ethereal, created by the magic of your poets genius, visited me by night and whispered to me wonderful tales, which made my head drunken. In your books I climbed the summits of Elbruz and Mont Blanc and saw from there how the sun rose in the morning, and in the evening suffused the sky, the ocean and the mountain ridges with a purple gold. I saw from there how above the lightning glimmered, cleaving the clouds; I saw green forests, fields, rivers, lakes, cities; I heard sirens singing, and the playing of the pipes of Pan; I touched the wings of beautiful devils who came flying to me to speak of God. . . In your books I cast myself into bottomless abysses, worked miracles, burned cities to the ground, preached new religions, conquered whole countries??
"Your books gave me wisdom. All that unwearyingly human thought created in the centuries is compressed to a little lump in my skull. I know that I am cleverer than you all.
"And I despise your books, despise all worldly blessings and wisdom. Everything is void, frail, visionary and delusive as a mirage. Though you be proud and wise and beautiful, yet will death wipe you from the face of the earth like the mice underground; and your posterity, your history, and the immortality of your men of genius will be as frozen slag, burnt down together with the terrestrial globe.
"You are mad, and gone the wrong way. You take falsehood for truth and ugliness for beauty. You would marvel if suddenly apple and orange trees should bear frogs and lizards instead of fruit, and if roses should begin to breathe the odor of a sweating horse.
So do I marvel at you, who have bartered heaven for earth. I do not want to understand you.
"That I may show you in deed my contempt for that by which you live, I waive the two millions of which I once dreamed as of paradise, and which I now despise.
That I may deprive myself of my right to them, I shall come out from here five minutes before the stipulated term, and thus shall violate the agreement."
When he had read, the banker put the sheet on the table, kissed the head of the strange man, and began to weep. He went out of the wing. Never at any other time, not even after his terrible losses on the Exchange, had he felt such contempt for himself as now. Coming home, he lay down on his bed, but agitation and tears kept him a long time from sleeping?..
The next morning the poor watchman came running to him and told him that they had seen the man who lived in the wing climb through the window into the garden. He had gone to the gate and disappeared. The banker instantly went with his servants to the wing and established the escape of his prisoner. To avoid unnecessary rumors he took the paper with renunciation from the table and, on his return, locked it in his safe.
Wife's Revenge
She spent the first day packing her belongings into boxes, crates and suitcases.
On the second day, she had the movers come and collect her things.
On the third day, she sat down for the last time at their beautiful dining room table by candlelight, put on some soft background music, and feasted on a pound of shrimp, a jar of caviar, and a bottle of Chardonnay. When she had finished, she went into each and every room and stuffed half-eaten shrimp shells dipped in caviar, into the hollow of the all of the curtain rods. She then cleaned up the kitchen and left.
When the husband returned with his new girlfriend, all was bliss for the first few days. Then slowly, the house began to smell. They tried everything, cleaning, mopping, and airing the place out. Vents were checked for dead rodents, and carpets were steam cleaned. Air fresheners were hung everywhere. Exterminators were brought in to set off gas canisters, during which they had to move out for a few days, and in the end they even paid to replace the expensive wool carpeting. Nothing worked. People stopped coming over to visit. Repairmen refused to work in the house. The maid quit. Finally, they could not take the stench any longer and decided to move.
A month later, even though they had cut their price in half, they could not find a buyer for their stinky house. Word got out, and eventually, even the local realtors refused to return their calls. Finally, they had to borrow a huge sum of money from the bank to purchase a new place.
The ex-wife called the man, and asked how things were going. He told her the saga of the rotting house. She listened politely, and said that she missed her old home terribly, and would be willing to reduce her divorce settlement in exchange for getting the house back.
Knowing his ex-wife had no idea how bad the smell was, he agreed on price that was about 1/10th of what the house had been worth, but only if she were to sign the papers that very day. She agreed, and within the hour his lawyers delivered the paperwork. A week later the man and his girlfriend stood smiling as they watched the moving company pack everything to take to their new home, including the curtain rods.
I love a happy ending, don't you?
On the second day, she had the movers come and collect her things.
On the third day, she sat down for the last time at their beautiful dining room table by candlelight, put on some soft background music, and feasted on a pound of shrimp, a jar of caviar, and a bottle of Chardonnay. When she had finished, she went into each and every room and stuffed half-eaten shrimp shells dipped in caviar, into the hollow of the all of the curtain rods. She then cleaned up the kitchen and left.
When the husband returned with his new girlfriend, all was bliss for the first few days. Then slowly, the house began to smell. They tried everything, cleaning, mopping, and airing the place out. Vents were checked for dead rodents, and carpets were steam cleaned. Air fresheners were hung everywhere. Exterminators were brought in to set off gas canisters, during which they had to move out for a few days, and in the end they even paid to replace the expensive wool carpeting. Nothing worked. People stopped coming over to visit. Repairmen refused to work in the house. The maid quit. Finally, they could not take the stench any longer and decided to move.
A month later, even though they had cut their price in half, they could not find a buyer for their stinky house. Word got out, and eventually, even the local realtors refused to return their calls. Finally, they had to borrow a huge sum of money from the bank to purchase a new place.
The ex-wife called the man, and asked how things were going. He told her the saga of the rotting house. She listened politely, and said that she missed her old home terribly, and would be willing to reduce her divorce settlement in exchange for getting the house back.
Knowing his ex-wife had no idea how bad the smell was, he agreed on price that was about 1/10th of what the house had been worth, but only if she were to sign the papers that very day. She agreed, and within the hour his lawyers delivered the paperwork. A week later the man and his girlfriend stood smiling as they watched the moving company pack everything to take to their new home, including the curtain rods.
I love a happy ending, don't you?
Rocket Science
Rocket Science Vs Software Development
You might have come accross someone who uses the following phrases
regularly..
"What's the big deal it ain't no rocket science"
and most of the times this guy will be our boss or customer or a guy from
the top Management.
Well, I'll tell you my idea of rocket science.....
I think rocket science is easy when compared to the software development
activity.
Most of the time the parameters required to build a rocket remain
constant...
I don't know many things about the rocket science (but still feel that i
should write an article about this subject)
So I'll give you an example in the following way....
Assume what would happen if the Rockets are developed the way we develop
software...
These are the following scenarios i could come up with
Scenario 1.
Boss: Where are we right now in that Mission to Moon Project?
Engineer: About 50% done boss..
Boss: Did we already started building the rocket? Engineer: Yes boss, we
got the shell, the propulsion engine and a few electronic gadgets to
monitor the critical parts of the rocket. The electronics are the most
expensive parts of the rocket.
Boss : Really? why did we buy them then? can't we make them ourselves?
Engineer: Most of our scientists are into "Rocket Science" boss, and we
don't have competency in electronic gadgets. And anyway, why do we need
them when already someone else is capable of delivering the electronic
gadgets.
Boss: Don't talk crap Edward. Why did we take these scientists from MIT ?
we expect them to know everything. Rocket Science is a science...
Electronics is a science. Can't you see the simple truth?
Engineer: Er...
Boss: With sincere efforts a man can achieve anything. Tell me how
difficult is it to build a neuclear reactor in your house? All one has to do is get a few grams of uranium 232 refine it.. bombard the nucleus of a
few atoms with a few neutrons... ..... connect this setup to an
electricity generator...thats all.... ,imagine how beautiful it would be
to say "One neuclear reactor in every home"
Engineer: Err... I think it is possible .. but...
Boss: You have a negative attitude Edward, you are a pessimist. You should
always believe in yourselves.
Engineer: Yes boss.
Boss: Leave that to me Edward, I'll suggest a group motivation program to
our top management. From our next project onwards, we'll build our own
electronic components. Please suggest a few good books on Electronics.
Engineer Yes boss.
Scenario 2
Boss: Edward, we have a situation here, the Management has decided to
change the "Mission to moon" project to "Mission to Mars" project.
Engineer: oh... so what happens to the efforts which we already put for
"Mission to moon" project?.
Boss: Yup, I had that in my mind while discussing the issue with the
Management. We'll use the same hardware.. Reusability is one of the key
factors of successful Rockets development.
Engineer: but boss getting to Mars is a altoghether..completely different
game .
Boss: Why Mars is a Planet and Moon is a Planet, I don't see a difference
here.. am I missing something?
Engineer: boss Moon is a satellite...and mars is a planet...
Boss: Don't teach me astronomy edward.. what is moon? a celetial body..
what is mars it is also a celestial body so we can safely say that moon
and mars implement ICelestialBody Interface. right? You should always
consider the abstract side of your job edward.
Engineer: But boss, how is this related to .......
Boss: Don't give me that ifs and buts crap edward... I've been noticing
your attitude from day 1, you are always a nonstarter. When will you
realize that we can do anything if we sincerely believe in what we are
doing.
Scenario 3
Boss: Edward You have to make a small change.
Engineer: what is it boss?
Boss: Today our VP has seen our rocket , he didn't like the shape of it,
he says, it reminds him.......er... something naughty and he says our
prestegious "Rocket company" should not do anything "undignified". You
have to change the shape of the rocket .
Scenario 4
Boss: Edward!! Why didn't the rocket take off?
Engineer: We developed the rocket with the idea that the gravity is 9.8
m/sec2 but today the gravity is 14.2 m/sec2
You might have come accross someone who uses the following phrases
regularly..
"What's the big deal it ain't no rocket science"
and most of the times this guy will be our boss or customer or a guy from
the top Management.
Well, I'll tell you my idea of rocket science.....
I think rocket science is easy when compared to the software development
activity.
Most of the time the parameters required to build a rocket remain
constant...
I don't know many things about the rocket science (but still feel that i
should write an article about this subject)
So I'll give you an example in the following way....
Assume what would happen if the Rockets are developed the way we develop
software...
These are the following scenarios i could come up with
Scenario 1.
Boss: Where are we right now in that Mission to Moon Project?
Engineer: About 50% done boss..
Boss: Did we already started building the rocket? Engineer: Yes boss, we
got the shell, the propulsion engine and a few electronic gadgets to
monitor the critical parts of the rocket. The electronics are the most
expensive parts of the rocket.
Boss : Really? why did we buy them then? can't we make them ourselves?
Engineer: Most of our scientists are into "Rocket Science" boss, and we
don't have competency in electronic gadgets. And anyway, why do we need
them when already someone else is capable of delivering the electronic
gadgets.
Boss: Don't talk crap Edward. Why did we take these scientists from MIT ?
we expect them to know everything. Rocket Science is a science...
Electronics is a science. Can't you see the simple truth?
Engineer: Er...
Boss: With sincere efforts a man can achieve anything. Tell me how
difficult is it to build a neuclear reactor in your house? All one has to do is get a few grams of uranium 232 refine it.. bombard the nucleus of a
few atoms with a few neutrons... ..... connect this setup to an
electricity generator...thats all.... ,imagine how beautiful it would be
to say "One neuclear reactor in every home"
Engineer: Err... I think it is possible .. but...
Boss: You have a negative attitude Edward, you are a pessimist. You should
always believe in yourselves.
Engineer: Yes boss.
Boss: Leave that to me Edward, I'll suggest a group motivation program to
our top management. From our next project onwards, we'll build our own
electronic components. Please suggest a few good books on Electronics.
Engineer Yes boss.
Scenario 2
Boss: Edward, we have a situation here, the Management has decided to
change the "Mission to moon" project to "Mission to Mars" project.
Engineer: oh... so what happens to the efforts which we already put for
"Mission to moon" project?.
Boss: Yup, I had that in my mind while discussing the issue with the
Management. We'll use the same hardware.. Reusability is one of the key
factors of successful Rockets development.
Engineer: but boss getting to Mars is a altoghether..completely different
game .
Boss: Why Mars is a Planet and Moon is a Planet, I don't see a difference
here.. am I missing something?
Engineer: boss Moon is a satellite...and mars is a planet...
Boss: Don't teach me astronomy edward.. what is moon? a celetial body..
what is mars it is also a celestial body so we can safely say that moon
and mars implement ICelestialBody Interface. right? You should always
consider the abstract side of your job edward.
Engineer: But boss, how is this related to .......
Boss: Don't give me that ifs and buts crap edward... I've been noticing
your attitude from day 1, you are always a nonstarter. When will you
realize that we can do anything if we sincerely believe in what we are
doing.
Scenario 3
Boss: Edward You have to make a small change.
Engineer: what is it boss?
Boss: Today our VP has seen our rocket , he didn't like the shape of it,
he says, it reminds him.......er... something naughty and he says our
prestegious "Rocket company" should not do anything "undignified". You
have to change the shape of the rocket .
Scenario 4
Boss: Edward!! Why didn't the rocket take off?
Engineer: We developed the rocket with the idea that the gravity is 9.8
m/sec2 but today the gravity is 14.2 m/sec2
Famous
Kuttappa was bragging to his boss one day, "You know, I know everyone
there is to know. Just name someone, anyone, and I know them."
Tired of his boasting, his boss called his bluff, "OK, Kuttappa how about
Tom Cruise?" "Sure, yes, Tom and I are old friends, and I can prove it."
So Kuttappa and his boss fly out to Hollywood and knock on Tom Cruise's
door, and sure enough, Tom Cruise shouts, "Babu! Great to see you! You and
your friend come right in and join me for lunch!" Although impressed,
Kuttappa's boss is still skeptical. After they leave Cruise's house, he
tells Kuttappa that he thinks Kuttappa's knowing Cruise was just lucky.
"No, no, just name anyone else", Kuttappa says. "President Bush," his
boss quickly retorts. "Yes," Kuttappa says, "I know him, let's fly out to
Washington." And off they go. At the White House, Bush spots Kuttappa
on the tour and motions him and his boss over, saying, "Babu, what a
surprise, I was just on my way to a meeting, but you and your friend come
on in and let's have a cup of coffee first and catch up."
Well, the boss is very shaken by now, but still not totally convinced.
After they leave the White House grounds, he expresses his doubts to
Kuttappa who again implores him to name anyone else. "The Pope," his boss
replies. "Sure!" says Kuttappa. "My folks are from Poland, and I've known
the Pope a long time." So off they fly to Rome. Kuttappa and his boss are
assembled with the masses in Vatican Square when Kuttappa says, "This will
never work. I can't catch the Pope's eye among all these people. Tell
you what, I know all the guards so let me just go upstairs and I'll come
out on the balcony with the Pope. And he disappears into the crowd headed
toward the Vatican. Sure enough, half an hour later Kuttappa emerges with
the Pope on the balcony.
But by the time Kuttappa returns, he finds that his boss has had a heart
attack and is surrounded by paramedics. Working his way to his boss'
side, Kuttappa asks him, what happened?" His boss looks up and says, "I
was doing fine until you and the Pope came out on the balcony and the man
next to me said, "Who's that old man on the balcony with Kuttappa?"
there is to know. Just name someone, anyone, and I know them."
Tired of his boasting, his boss called his bluff, "OK, Kuttappa how about
Tom Cruise?" "Sure, yes, Tom and I are old friends, and I can prove it."
So Kuttappa and his boss fly out to Hollywood and knock on Tom Cruise's
door, and sure enough, Tom Cruise shouts, "Babu! Great to see you! You and
your friend come right in and join me for lunch!" Although impressed,
Kuttappa's boss is still skeptical. After they leave Cruise's house, he
tells Kuttappa that he thinks Kuttappa's knowing Cruise was just lucky.
"No, no, just name anyone else", Kuttappa says. "President Bush," his
boss quickly retorts. "Yes," Kuttappa says, "I know him, let's fly out to
Washington." And off they go. At the White House, Bush spots Kuttappa
on the tour and motions him and his boss over, saying, "Babu, what a
surprise, I was just on my way to a meeting, but you and your friend come
on in and let's have a cup of coffee first and catch up."
Well, the boss is very shaken by now, but still not totally convinced.
After they leave the White House grounds, he expresses his doubts to
Kuttappa who again implores him to name anyone else. "The Pope," his boss
replies. "Sure!" says Kuttappa. "My folks are from Poland, and I've known
the Pope a long time." So off they fly to Rome. Kuttappa and his boss are
assembled with the masses in Vatican Square when Kuttappa says, "This will
never work. I can't catch the Pope's eye among all these people. Tell
you what, I know all the guards so let me just go upstairs and I'll come
out on the balcony with the Pope. And he disappears into the crowd headed
toward the Vatican. Sure enough, half an hour later Kuttappa emerges with
the Pope on the balcony.
But by the time Kuttappa returns, he finds that his boss has had a heart
attack and is surrounded by paramedics. Working his way to his boss'
side, Kuttappa asks him, what happened?" His boss looks up and says, "I
was doing fine until you and the Pope came out on the balcony and the man
next to me said, "Who's that old man on the balcony with Kuttappa?"
12 o' clock
Narration of anonymous person :
I was standing at jalandhar station when my attention went towards a Sikh youth standing near me wearing a Black turban having a long beard and wearing a kirpan over his shirt looking similar to a terrorist. After a while, one local train arrived, which was totally packed. The Sikh youth tried to alight the train but failed to do so. Just then a voice was heard from the back coach 'Sardarji Barah Baj gaye' The Sikh youth looked over at that voice maker who was a young mischievous type of person and instead of showing any anger made a smile towards him. The smile made was so enigmatic that it seemed as if some type of truth lies behind it. Not able to resist my temptation, I walked towards him and asked why did he smile at that person who teased him. The Sikh youth replied, 'He was not teasing me but was asking for my Help'. I was surprised with these words and he told me that there was a big history behind that which one should know. I was eager to know the History and the Sikh youth narrated: During 17th Century, when Hindustan was ruled by Mughals, all the Hindu people were humiliated and were treated like animals. Mughals treated the Hindu women as there own property and were forcing all Hindus to accept Islam and even used to kill the people if they were refusing to accept.That time, our ninth Guru, Sri Guru Teg Bhadarji came forward,in response to a request of some Kashmir Pandits to fight against all these cruel activities.Guruji told the Mughal emperor that if he could succeed in converting him to Islam, all the Hindus would accept the same. But, if he failed, he should stop all those activities . The Mughal emperor happily agreed to that but even after lots of torture to Guruji and his fellow members he failed to convert him toIslam and Guruji along with his other four fellow members, were tortured and sacrificed their lives in Chandni Chowk. Since the Mughals were unable to convert them to Islam they were assassinated. Thus Guruji sacrificed his life for the protection of Hindu religion. Can anybody lay down his life and that too for the protection of another religion? This is the reason he is still remembered as "Hind Ki Chaddar", shield of India.
For
the sake of whom he had sacrificed his life, none of the them came forward to lift his body, fearing that they would also be assassinated .
Seeing
this incident our 10th Guruji, Sri Guru Gobind Singhji (Son of Guru Teg
Bahadarji) founder of khalsa made a resolution that he would convert his followers to such human beings who would not be able to hide themselves and could be easily located in thousands. At the start, the Sikhs were very few in numbers as they were fighting against the Mughal emperors. At that time, Nadir Shah raided Delhi in the year 1739 and looted Hindustan and was carrying lot of Hindustan treasures and nearly 2200 Hindu women along with him. The news spread like a fire and was heard by Sardar Jassa Singh who was the Commander of the Sikh army at that time . He decided to attackNadir Shah's Kafila on the same midnight. He did so and rescued all the Hindu women and they were safely sent to their homes. It didn't happen only once but thereafter whenever any Abdaalis or Iranis had attacked and looted Hindustan and were trying to carry the treasures and Hindu women along with them for selling them in Abdal markets, the Sikh army although fewer in numbers but were brave hearted and attacked them at
midnight,12
O'clock and rescued women. After that time when there occurred a similar incidence, people started to contact the Sikh army for their help and Sikhs used to attack the raider's at Midnight, 12 O'clock. It continued and became a known fact that at midnight, nearly at 12 O'clock, it is very difficult to fight against Sikhs as the Sikhs get some Extra Power to save Religion,Nation and Humanity. Nobody can fight and win against them at midnight; this continues till now. Nowadays, these "smart people" and some Sikh enemies who are afraid of Sikhs, have spread these words that at
12 O'clock, the Sikhs go out of their senses. This historic fact was the reason which made me smile over that person as I thought that his Mother or Sister would be in trouble and wants my help and was reminding me by saying off 'Sardarji Barah Baj Gaye'
I was standing at jalandhar station when my attention went towards a Sikh youth standing near me wearing a Black turban having a long beard and wearing a kirpan over his shirt looking similar to a terrorist. After a while, one local train arrived, which was totally packed. The Sikh youth tried to alight the train but failed to do so. Just then a voice was heard from the back coach 'Sardarji Barah Baj gaye' The Sikh youth looked over at that voice maker who was a young mischievous type of person and instead of showing any anger made a smile towards him. The smile made was so enigmatic that it seemed as if some type of truth lies behind it. Not able to resist my temptation, I walked towards him and asked why did he smile at that person who teased him. The Sikh youth replied, 'He was not teasing me but was asking for my Help'. I was surprised with these words and he told me that there was a big history behind that which one should know. I was eager to know the History and the Sikh youth narrated: During 17th Century, when Hindustan was ruled by Mughals, all the Hindu people were humiliated and were treated like animals. Mughals treated the Hindu women as there own property and were forcing all Hindus to accept Islam and even used to kill the people if they were refusing to accept.That time, our ninth Guru, Sri Guru Teg Bhadarji came forward,in response to a request of some Kashmir Pandits to fight against all these cruel activities.Guruji told the Mughal emperor that if he could succeed in converting him to Islam, all the Hindus would accept the same. But, if he failed, he should stop all those activities . The Mughal emperor happily agreed to that but even after lots of torture to Guruji and his fellow members he failed to convert him toIslam and Guruji along with his other four fellow members, were tortured and sacrificed their lives in Chandni Chowk. Since the Mughals were unable to convert them to Islam they were assassinated. Thus Guruji sacrificed his life for the protection of Hindu religion. Can anybody lay down his life and that too for the protection of another religion? This is the reason he is still remembered as "Hind Ki Chaddar", shield of India.
For
the sake of whom he had sacrificed his life, none of the them came forward to lift his body, fearing that they would also be assassinated .
Seeing
this incident our 10th Guruji, Sri Guru Gobind Singhji (Son of Guru Teg
Bahadarji) founder of khalsa made a resolution that he would convert his followers to such human beings who would not be able to hide themselves and could be easily located in thousands. At the start, the Sikhs were very few in numbers as they were fighting against the Mughal emperors. At that time, Nadir Shah raided Delhi in the year 1739 and looted Hindustan and was carrying lot of Hindustan treasures and nearly 2200 Hindu women along with him. The news spread like a fire and was heard by Sardar Jassa Singh who was the Commander of the Sikh army at that time . He decided to attackNadir Shah's Kafila on the same midnight. He did so and rescued all the Hindu women and they were safely sent to their homes. It didn't happen only once but thereafter whenever any Abdaalis or Iranis had attacked and looted Hindustan and were trying to carry the treasures and Hindu women along with them for selling them in Abdal markets, the Sikh army although fewer in numbers but were brave hearted and attacked them at
midnight,12
O'clock and rescued women. After that time when there occurred a similar incidence, people started to contact the Sikh army for their help and Sikhs used to attack the raider's at Midnight, 12 O'clock. It continued and became a known fact that at midnight, nearly at 12 O'clock, it is very difficult to fight against Sikhs as the Sikhs get some Extra Power to save Religion,Nation and Humanity. Nobody can fight and win against them at midnight; this continues till now. Nowadays, these "smart people" and some Sikh enemies who are afraid of Sikhs, have spread these words that at
12 O'clock, the Sikhs go out of their senses. This historic fact was the reason which made me smile over that person as I thought that his Mother or Sister would be in trouble and wants my help and was reminding me by saying off 'Sardarji Barah Baj Gaye'
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
90/10
WHAT is the 90/10 Principle?
It means that 10 percent of life is made up of what happens to you; 90 percent of life is decided by how you react.
What does this mean?
We really have no control over 10 percent of what happens to us.
For instance, we cannot stop the car from breaking down, the plane from arriving late, which throws our whole schedule off.
We have no control over this 10 percent. The other 90 percent is different.
You can control the 90 percent.
How?
By your reaction.
Let's use an example.............
Scenario:
You are eating breakfast with your family.
Your daughter knocks over a cup of coffee onto your business shirt.
You have no control over what has just happened.
What happens next will be determined by how you react.
Negative Flow:
You curse. You harshly scold your daughter for knocking the cup over.
She breaks down in tears. After scolding her, you turn to your spouse and criticize her for placing the cup too close to the edge of the table.
A short verbal battle follows. You storm upstairs and change your shirt.
Back downstairs, you find your daughter has been too busy crying to finish breakfast and get ready for school.
She misses the bus. Your spouse must leave immediately for work.
You rush to the car and drive your daughter to school.
Because you are late, you drive 40 miles an hour in a 30 mph speed limit.
After a 15-minute delay and throwing $60 (traffic fine) away, you arrive at school. Your daughter runs into the building without saying goodbye.
After arriving at the office 20 minutes late, you find you forgot your briefcase. Your day has started terrible.
As it continues, it seems to get worse and worse.
You look forward to coming home.
When you arrive home, you find small wedge in your relationship with your spouse and daughter.
Why? Because of your reaction that morning.
Why did you have a bad day?
A) Did the coffee cause it?
B) Did your daughter cause it?
C) Did the policeman cause it?
D) Did you cause it?
The answer is D.
You had no control over what happened with the coffee.
How you reacted in those 5 seconds is what caused your bad day.
Here is what could have been done and should have happened.
Positive Flow:
Coffee splashes over you.
Your daughter is about to cry.
You gently say, "It's OK honey, you just need to be more careful next time."
Grabbing a towel you rush upstairs.
After pulling out a new shirt and your briefcase, you come back down in time to look through the window and see your child getting on the bus.
She turns and waves.
You arrive 5 minutes early and cheerfully greet the staff.
Notice the difference?
Two different scenarios. Both started the same. Both ended different.
Why? Because of how you REACTED.
A powerful principle... especially for those who take life too seriously.
Apply the 90/10 principle. It will change your life - at least the way you react to situations.
It means that 10 percent of life is made up of what happens to you; 90 percent of life is decided by how you react.
What does this mean?
We really have no control over 10 percent of what happens to us.
For instance, we cannot stop the car from breaking down, the plane from arriving late, which throws our whole schedule off.
We have no control over this 10 percent. The other 90 percent is different.
You can control the 90 percent.
How?
By your reaction.
Let's use an example.............
Scenario:
You are eating breakfast with your family.
Your daughter knocks over a cup of coffee onto your business shirt.
You have no control over what has just happened.
What happens next will be determined by how you react.
Negative Flow:
You curse. You harshly scold your daughter for knocking the cup over.
She breaks down in tears. After scolding her, you turn to your spouse and criticize her for placing the cup too close to the edge of the table.
A short verbal battle follows. You storm upstairs and change your shirt.
Back downstairs, you find your daughter has been too busy crying to finish breakfast and get ready for school.
She misses the bus. Your spouse must leave immediately for work.
You rush to the car and drive your daughter to school.
Because you are late, you drive 40 miles an hour in a 30 mph speed limit.
After a 15-minute delay and throwing $60 (traffic fine) away, you arrive at school. Your daughter runs into the building without saying goodbye.
After arriving at the office 20 minutes late, you find you forgot your briefcase. Your day has started terrible.
As it continues, it seems to get worse and worse.
You look forward to coming home.
When you arrive home, you find small wedge in your relationship with your spouse and daughter.
Why? Because of your reaction that morning.
Why did you have a bad day?
A) Did the coffee cause it?
B) Did your daughter cause it?
C) Did the policeman cause it?
D) Did you cause it?
The answer is D.
You had no control over what happened with the coffee.
How you reacted in those 5 seconds is what caused your bad day.
Here is what could have been done and should have happened.
Positive Flow:
Coffee splashes over you.
Your daughter is about to cry.
You gently say, "It's OK honey, you just need to be more careful next time."
Grabbing a towel you rush upstairs.
After pulling out a new shirt and your briefcase, you come back down in time to look through the window and see your child getting on the bus.
She turns and waves.
You arrive 5 minutes early and cheerfully greet the staff.
Notice the difference?
Two different scenarios. Both started the same. Both ended different.
Why? Because of how you REACTED.
A powerful principle... especially for those who take life too seriously.
Apply the 90/10 principle. It will change your life - at least the way you react to situations.
Rumsfeld Classics
1.I'm a patient man. And when I say I'm a patient man, I mean I'm a patient man.
2. I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe — I believe what I believe is right
3. I recently met with the finance minister of the Palestinian Authority, was very impressed by his grasp of finances
4. I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't here
5. For a century and a half now, America and Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times
Classic:
"As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know."
This quote has not only passed into linguistic legend, it also won Rumsfeld a " Foot in Mouth " award from the British Plain English Campaign.
2. I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe — I believe what I believe is right
3. I recently met with the finance minister of the Palestinian Authority, was very impressed by his grasp of finances
4. I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't here
5. For a century and a half now, America and Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times
Classic:
"As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know."
This quote has not only passed into linguistic legend, it also won Rumsfeld a " Foot in Mouth " award from the British Plain English Campaign.
Prophet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MARRIAGE
Then Almitra spoke again and said, "And what of Marriage, master?"
And he answered saying: You were born together, and together you shall be for evermore. You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days. Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God. But let there be spaces in your togetherness. And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another, but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHILDREN
And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of Children."
And he said: Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of to-morrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the Archer's hand be for gladness; For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
MARRIAGE
Then Almitra spoke again and said, "And what of Marriage, master?"
And he answered saying: You were born together, and together you shall be for evermore. You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days. Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God. But let there be spaces in your togetherness. And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another, but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHILDREN
And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of Children."
And he said: Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of to-morrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the Archer's hand be for gladness; For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
Oxymorons
Here you will find the top 45 oxymorons. An oxymoron is a combination of two words that are completely opposite in meaning. You've probably heard many of these before but didn't realize that they fall within this category.
45. Act naturally
44. Found missing
43. Resident alien
42. Advanced BASIC
41. Genuine imitation
40. Airline Food
39. Good grief
38. Same difference
37. Almost exactly
36. Government organization
35. Sanitary landfill
34. Alone together
33. Legally drunk
32. Silent scream
31. Living dead
30. Small crowd
29. Business ethics
28. Soft rock
27. Butt head
26. Military intelligence
25. Software documentation
24. New classic
23. Sweet sorrow
22. Child Proof
21. "Now, then ..."
20. Synthetic natural gas
19. Passive aggression
18. Taped live
17. Clearly misunderstood
16. Peace force
15. Extinct life
14. Temporary tax increase
13. Computer jock
12. Plastic glasses
11. Terribly pleased
10. Computer security
9. Political science
8. Tight slacks
7. Definite maybe
6. Pretty ugly
5. Twelve-ounce pound cake
4. Diet ice cream
3. Working vacation
2. Exact estimate
...And the number 1 oxymoron is..
1. Microsoft Works
45. Act naturally
44. Found missing
43. Resident alien
42. Advanced BASIC
41. Genuine imitation
40. Airline Food
39. Good grief
38. Same difference
37. Almost exactly
36. Government organization
35. Sanitary landfill
34. Alone together
33. Legally drunk
32. Silent scream
31. Living dead
30. Small crowd
29. Business ethics
28. Soft rock
27. Butt head
26. Military intelligence
25. Software documentation
24. New classic
23. Sweet sorrow
22. Child Proof
21. "Now, then ..."
20. Synthetic natural gas
19. Passive aggression
18. Taped live
17. Clearly misunderstood
16. Peace force
15. Extinct life
14. Temporary tax increase
13. Computer jock
12. Plastic glasses
11. Terribly pleased
10. Computer security
9. Political science
8. Tight slacks
7. Definite maybe
6. Pretty ugly
5. Twelve-ounce pound cake
4. Diet ice cream
3. Working vacation
2. Exact estimate
...And the number 1 oxymoron is..
1. Microsoft Works
English
English is really crazy
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins were not invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce, and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So, one moose, 2 meese? One index, two indices? Is cheese the plural of choose?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
In what language do people recite at a play, and play at a recital?
Ship by truck, and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another?
When a house burns up, it burns down. You fill in a form by filling it out, and an alarm clock goes off by going on.
When the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins were not invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce, and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So, one moose, 2 meese? One index, two indices? Is cheese the plural of choose?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
In what language do people recite at a play, and play at a recital?
Ship by truck, and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another?
When a house burns up, it burns down. You fill in a form by filling it out, and an alarm clock goes off by going on.
When the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Contrary Proverbs
All good things come to those who wait.
Time and tide wait for no man.
The pen is mightier than the sword.
Actions speak louder than words.
Wise men think alike.
Fools seldom differ.
The best things in life are free .
There's no such thing as a free lunch .
Slow and steady wins the race .
Time waits for no man ..
Look before you leap .
Strike while the iron is hot .
Do it well, or not at all.
Half a loaf is better than none.
Birds of a feather flock together.
Opposites attract.
Don't cross your bridges before you come to them.
Forewarned is forearmed.
Doubt is the beginning of wisdom.
Faith will move mountains.
Great starts make great finishes.
It ain't over 'till it's over.
Silence is golden.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
You're never too old to learn.
You can't teach an old dog new tricks
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
One man's meat is another man's poison.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Too many cooks spoil the broth.
Many hands make light work.
Hold fast to the words of your ancestors.
Wise men make proverbs and fools repeat them.
Time and tide wait for no man.
The pen is mightier than the sword.
Actions speak louder than words.
Wise men think alike.
Fools seldom differ.
The best things in life are free .
There's no such thing as a free lunch .
Slow and steady wins the race .
Time waits for no man ..
Look before you leap .
Strike while the iron is hot .
Do it well, or not at all.
Half a loaf is better than none.
Birds of a feather flock together.
Opposites attract.
Don't cross your bridges before you come to them.
Forewarned is forearmed.
Doubt is the beginning of wisdom.
Faith will move mountains.
Great starts make great finishes.
It ain't over 'till it's over.
Silence is golden.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
You're never too old to learn.
You can't teach an old dog new tricks
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
One man's meat is another man's poison.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Too many cooks spoil the broth.
Many hands make light work.
Hold fast to the words of your ancestors.
Wise men make proverbs and fools repeat them.
Lincoln - JFK
Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846. John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.
Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.
Both were particularly concerned with civil rights. Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.
Both Presidents were shot on a Friday. Both Presidents were shot in the head.
Now it gets really weird.
Lincoln 's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln.
Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.
Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.
John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.
Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.
Now hang on to your seat.
Lincoln was shot at the theater named 'Ford.'
Kennedy was shot in a car called ' Lincoln' made by 'Ford.'
Lincoln was shot in a theater and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse.
Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a theater.
Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.
And here's the kicker...
A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.
Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.
Both were particularly concerned with civil rights. Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.
Both Presidents were shot on a Friday. Both Presidents were shot in the head.
Now it gets really weird.
Lincoln 's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln.
Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.
Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.
John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.
Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.
Now hang on to your seat.
Lincoln was shot at the theater named 'Ford.'
Kennedy was shot in a car called ' Lincoln' made by 'Ford.'
Lincoln was shot in a theater and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse.
Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a theater.
Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.
And here's the kicker...
A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
College Days
During College Days...
1. On being Late
"Kab chalu hua?"
"Attendance ho gaya kya??"
"Kal raat der tak gappe marte rahe yaar"
"Mein kya karu, Brij bathroom mein ghusa hua tha"
"Aab nind nahi khuli to mein kya karu......... bolna ........ kal kya padaya tha sir ne"
"Kal se pakka class karunga"
"Ek page de na.......... abe pen bhi to de......."
"Kal proxy mara tha kya"
"Yaar iss class ke liye koi subah kaise aa sakta hai........"
2. During the lecture
"Yesss !!!! Sir.......The answer is .......huuuummmmm.......aaaaaaaa............"
"No sir.....I know the answer .......sir...."
"Saala apne aapko Newton samajta hai"
"Abe lecture ko chod..... Anjali kya lag rahi hai aaj........"
"Uske bagal mein nahi baith sakta tha.......gadha......."
"mera assignment tere paas hai??"
"Kya bore ho raha hai. Bola tha cigarette pene chalte hain "
"Heads, we go canteen , Tails, we go canteen now!!!"
"Boss class khatam hote hi chai chahiye......"
3. Lab
"Expt. 2 likha??"
"Idhar Karna kya hai??"
"Yeh bhai.....mereko aata to tere pass kyon aata........"
"Areee tu to bura maan gaya.......data dikha na........."
4. Mid Sem
"Mid Sem???? .....Aree yaar...... "
"Kya...... abe Mid Sem mein itna topic hai to annual mein kya hoga...."
"Boss..... hogaya......aur nahi ho sakta........jaan nahi de sakta......."
"Oh !!! Itna syllabus cover ho gaya ?"
"Aaj kounsa test hai?"
"Oye Naini kaha hai......uska roll number mere baad hai.......wo nahi aaya to mein pakka fail...."
After test......"yaar pada tha....recall nahi kar paya.......chhod na ....... Canteen chalega..."
5. For attendance (less attendance isliye attendance badane ke liye bahane) "I was in the class, lecturer mark karna bhool gaya "
"Oye usko thoda khus kar list se tera naam hata dega........"
"Bola tha proxy regularly maar....... Saale tera class karne ka kya faida hua....."
6. Late submission of assignments
"Maine ukko bola thaa ki copy karke mera assgnment bhi saath mein submit kar dena"
"Last date extend hua thaa"
"I didn't know the last date"
"Ab mein kya karu wo mereko bole bina hi submit kar diya......."
"They should allow XEROX........"
7 . After exam
"Yeh bhi syllabus mein thaa kya?"
"Achha !!! ye aise hota hai kya?"
"Ye subject ka reference book kounsa hai"
"1st mein 3 marks.....2nd mein 0.......3rd mein 2.......Gaya..........fail pakka......."
"Yaar notice lagte hi faad dena........wo kya soochegi mera marks dekh kar......"
8 VIVA (b4 exam)
"Submission ab tak hua nahi hai , VIVA kya ghanta doonga"
"Aeee......Rohit.....terese kya poocha......."
"External ke ghar mein bacche nahi hai kya......."
"Dekh Boss!! external bhi aadmi hai. Usko pata hai students ka ab tak preparation nahi hua hai"
9 . VIVA (General)
"Dekh , tu jo bhi padhega , woh (external) tereko woh nahi poochhnewaala, then watz the point"
"Roll no. 1 aur 2 ka watt laga diya hai"
"External is asking Bermuda Triangle ka Magnetic force kitna hai"
"Ye kounse unit mein aata hai"
10 . Submission
"Ye bhi chhapna hai kya?"
"Iska bhi print-out lena hai kya?"
"Jai ho computer baba ki......jai ho Ctrl C - Ctrl V ki......."
"Tujhe Sir ka sign aata hai kya?"
11 . A convo:
"Ye tune kya likha hai????"
(The best one)
"Jo word samajh mein aa raha hai woh likh, jo nahi samajh mein aa raha hai uska drawing nikal"
"Phir bhi, kuch to idea hoga??"
" Maine uska likha hai, mera assignment check ho gaya , tu bhi wohi kar."
"Koi hint........"
"Are baba ghasit de........na tu samjega na wo........"
12. Exam
"Jo (mujhe) aata hai, woh (paper mein) aata nahi hai; jo nahi aata hai who aata hai"
"ye question 2 saal se nahi poochha hai"
"ye last time hi poochha thaa"
"tere paas is ke notes hai??"
"woh chapter... mark weightage 6 marks... (facial ex-pressions speaks the story)"
"nahi samjha to rat le"
"External ka aane ka pura scene hai....... "
"Iss paper mein roll number ka kya order hai........"
"Pichle paper mein to kuch to aata tha.......issmein to anda aata hai......"
"Ek aur din ka gap de dete to kya 3rd World War ho jata tha kya........"
........ bas ek bar wapas lautne ka man karta hai .........
........ Aaj har wo baat yaad aati hai.......
........ kuch buri batein jo ab acchi lagti hain ........
........ kuch batein jo kal ki hi batein lagti hain ........
........ abki baar class attend karne ka man karta hai ........
........ Dopahar ki class mein aakhen band karne ka man karta hai......
........ hostel ke chat ki wo raat yaad aati hai ........
........ exam ke time pe wo hasi mazak bahut pyari lagti hai ........
........ tab ki bekar lagne wali photo's chehre pe hasi laati hai .......
........ Apni galtiyon pe tumse daat khana yaad aata hai. ........
........ Par tumhari galti dekhne ka man karta hai........
........ Aaj tum bahut yaad aate ho.......
........Ek aisi subah uthne ka man karta hai........
........bas ek bar wapas lautne ka man karta hai........
........bas ek bar aur .......
........wapas lautne ka man karta hai
1. On being Late
"Kab chalu hua?"
"Attendance ho gaya kya??"
"Kal raat der tak gappe marte rahe yaar"
"Mein kya karu, Brij bathroom mein ghusa hua tha"
"Aab nind nahi khuli to mein kya karu......... bolna ........ kal kya padaya tha sir ne"
"Kal se pakka class karunga"
"Ek page de na.......... abe pen bhi to de......."
"Kal proxy mara tha kya"
"Yaar iss class ke liye koi subah kaise aa sakta hai........"
2. During the lecture
"Yesss !!!! Sir.......The answer is .......huuuummmmm.......aaaaaaaa............"
"No sir.....I know the answer .......sir...."
"Saala apne aapko Newton samajta hai"
"Abe lecture ko chod..... Anjali kya lag rahi hai aaj........"
"Uske bagal mein nahi baith sakta tha.......gadha......."
"mera assignment tere paas hai??"
"Kya bore ho raha hai. Bola tha cigarette pene chalte hain "
"Heads, we go canteen , Tails, we go canteen now!!!"
"Boss class khatam hote hi chai chahiye......"
3. Lab
"Expt. 2 likha??"
"Idhar Karna kya hai??"
"Yeh bhai.....mereko aata to tere pass kyon aata........"
"Areee tu to bura maan gaya.......data dikha na........."
4. Mid Sem
"Mid Sem???? .....Aree yaar...... "
"Kya...... abe Mid Sem mein itna topic hai to annual mein kya hoga...."
"Boss..... hogaya......aur nahi ho sakta........jaan nahi de sakta......."
"Oh !!! Itna syllabus cover ho gaya ?"
"Aaj kounsa test hai?"
"Oye Naini kaha hai......uska roll number mere baad hai.......wo nahi aaya to mein pakka fail...."
After test......"yaar pada tha....recall nahi kar paya.......chhod na ....... Canteen chalega..."
5. For attendance (less attendance isliye attendance badane ke liye bahane) "I was in the class, lecturer mark karna bhool gaya "
"Oye usko thoda khus kar list se tera naam hata dega........"
"Bola tha proxy regularly maar....... Saale tera class karne ka kya faida hua....."
6. Late submission of assignments
"Maine ukko bola thaa ki copy karke mera assgnment bhi saath mein submit kar dena"
"Last date extend hua thaa"
"I didn't know the last date"
"Ab mein kya karu wo mereko bole bina hi submit kar diya......."
"They should allow XEROX........"
7 . After exam
"Yeh bhi syllabus mein thaa kya?"
"Achha !!! ye aise hota hai kya?"
"Ye subject ka reference book kounsa hai"
"1st mein 3 marks.....2nd mein 0.......3rd mein 2.......Gaya..........fail pakka......."
"Yaar notice lagte hi faad dena........wo kya soochegi mera marks dekh kar......"
8 VIVA (b4 exam)
"Submission ab tak hua nahi hai , VIVA kya ghanta doonga"
"Aeee......Rohit.....terese kya poocha......."
"External ke ghar mein bacche nahi hai kya......."
"Dekh Boss!! external bhi aadmi hai. Usko pata hai students ka ab tak preparation nahi hua hai"
9 . VIVA (General)
"Dekh , tu jo bhi padhega , woh (external) tereko woh nahi poochhnewaala, then watz the point"
"Roll no. 1 aur 2 ka watt laga diya hai"
"External is asking Bermuda Triangle ka Magnetic force kitna hai"
"Ye kounse unit mein aata hai"
10 . Submission
"Ye bhi chhapna hai kya?"
"Iska bhi print-out lena hai kya?"
"Jai ho computer baba ki......jai ho Ctrl C - Ctrl V ki......."
"Tujhe Sir ka sign aata hai kya?"
11 . A convo:
"Ye tune kya likha hai????"
(The best one)
"Jo word samajh mein aa raha hai woh likh, jo nahi samajh mein aa raha hai uska drawing nikal"
"Phir bhi, kuch to idea hoga??"
" Maine uska likha hai, mera assignment check ho gaya , tu bhi wohi kar."
"Koi hint........"
"Are baba ghasit de........na tu samjega na wo........"
12. Exam
"Jo (mujhe) aata hai, woh (paper mein) aata nahi hai; jo nahi aata hai who aata hai"
"ye question 2 saal se nahi poochha hai"
"ye last time hi poochha thaa"
"tere paas is ke notes hai??"
"woh chapter... mark weightage 6 marks... (facial ex-pressions speaks the story)"
"nahi samjha to rat le"
"External ka aane ka pura scene hai....... "
"Iss paper mein roll number ka kya order hai........"
"Pichle paper mein to kuch to aata tha.......issmein to anda aata hai......"
"Ek aur din ka gap de dete to kya 3rd World War ho jata tha kya........"
........ bas ek bar wapas lautne ka man karta hai .........
........ Aaj har wo baat yaad aati hai.......
........ kuch buri batein jo ab acchi lagti hain ........
........ kuch batein jo kal ki hi batein lagti hain ........
........ abki baar class attend karne ka man karta hai ........
........ Dopahar ki class mein aakhen band karne ka man karta hai......
........ hostel ke chat ki wo raat yaad aati hai ........
........ exam ke time pe wo hasi mazak bahut pyari lagti hai ........
........ tab ki bekar lagne wali photo's chehre pe hasi laati hai .......
........ Apni galtiyon pe tumse daat khana yaad aata hai. ........
........ Par tumhari galti dekhne ka man karta hai........
........ Aaj tum bahut yaad aate ho.......
........Ek aisi subah uthne ka man karta hai........
........bas ek bar wapas lautne ka man karta hai........
........bas ek bar aur .......
........wapas lautne ka man karta hai
Onsite
A Story about Onsite...!
One fine day, Vivek's PL Bhatia asks him whether he has any time for a small meeting. Vivek obviously has time and so the two go to a conference room. Bhatia then clears his throat and says "Vivek, there is an on-site requirement. It is in Covina, Los Angeles. It is for six months. I can suggest your name. Do you have any problems?"
Vivek cannot believe his ears. Of course why should any one have problems going to the Sam land. "Of course no Bhatia.. I have no problems." he says.
Bhatia looks at him very kindly and says "You better draw up your personal plans with your wife and let me know in a day or two" That's when Vivek remembers that he has a wife. Then it strikes him that there is a himalayan problem in front of him. Shobana is working in Wipro. She is in the middle of a project in which she is a moduleleader. She cannot leave it all and come to Covinawith Vivek. On the otherhand it will be cruel on Vivek's part to leave her here and go to Covinafor more than half a year. Moreover, they have just been married. Vivek can stay back. But one day he has to go..
He cannot stay back in India indefinitely. Project requirements are too
demanding. Shobana can resign Wipro and accompany Vivek. But what is the guarantee that she would find such a nice job in such a nice company after they come back from Covina? So Shobana and Vivek discuss this issue. They reluctantly agree to get separated for six months.
Vivek hugs Shobana in the airport and says "I will be BACK" in a typical Arnold Schwarzanegger tone and then boards Delta Airways leaving Shobana in tears. In Covina Vivek gets lots of work and his stay gets extended by two more months. The days and months move very slowly. Vivek starts counting even minutes.
During this period, Shobana's PL Ashish Mehta calls her one day and asks her whether she has any time for a small meeting. Shobana wonders what that meeting is.. They go to the conference room and Mehta tells her about a great on-site requirement in Berlin, Germany for their customer.
"It is for six months and you are most suited person for this. I am going to suggest your name. Do you have any problems?" Mehta asks her.
Shobana gets excited.. Berlin! She has never been out of India. So she instantly nods her head. Mehta then smiles and says "Okay discuss with your hubby and let me know in a day or two"
That's when Shobana gets the gravity of the situation. It will be two
months before Vivek can come home..... By the time Shobana will have left to Berlin for six months. Shobana cannot decline this as this is an important assignment. That night Vivek spends hundred dollars on telephone to discuss this matter with Shobana. Finally they decide to go ahead. Shobana breaks down in the phone and Vivek breaks down thinking about his phone bill. And then Shobana leaves to Berlin.
One month after that,Vivek comes back to India. Then Shobana calls him almost everyday and they discuss about all petty things on the phone. Shobana applies for a loan to clear her telephone bills. Vivek gets into a new project which is not yet started. His PL Prateek Ray calls him one day and says that he has to go to ToledoOhiofor the requirement analysis of that project. Vivek frantically says no. Shobana is arriving next month. He doesn't want to miss her. But Ray assures him that the work is only for one month and that he would be back before Shobana comes to India.
Thus Vivek flies to Toledo, Ohio and gets into the requirement analysis of the new project. That's when he comes to know how difficult it is to retrieve information from the users. You can design a system the user wants only when the user knows what he wants. Vivek gets baffled by the questions his users put..
"Do you think I need those fields "GMG_TYPE_HJHJ_TW" and "Auto_level_ind"?
What are they by the way?" The requirements analysis stage continues for three full months at this pace. Shobana comes to India one month after that. And she tells her PL that she doesn't want anymore on-site assignments. "I understand" says Mehta and she desperately waits for Vivek to come back to India. It has already been two months over a year since they last met. Vivek then gets the role of an on-site co-rdinator
for this customer.
He calls Shobana that night and they really don't know what to do. Shobana offers to resign her job and join him in Toledo. But she is getting 21 grand per month in India and Vivek doesn't want to lose that. "Two more months Shobana and I promise I will be back"
Shobana retorts back, "There is no solution for this problem." Vivek gets surprised. "What are you talking about?" he asks her. Shobana fights back her tears. "As long as I am in Wipro I will be getting a lot of on-site opportunities. Even if I decline all of them, what about you? You also work for a software company and there you need to go abroad almost once every quarter.
I cannot accompany you as you don't want me to resign my job here. Does that mean we have to stay like this forever? Vivek! I love you and I don't know how I spent fifteen months without even seeing you once.
I may not recognize you also if you come in front of me now... Tell me Vivek, is there a solution for this problem?" Vivek doesn't speak anything for a moment. He then realizes the truth in her sentences. It is a neverending problem.
But what about the 20 grand she is getting per month?
"Vivek, is money everything? Can't we comfortably live with what you are getting? Please Vivek, try to understand the situation" Shobana breaks down. Vivek is still undecided. He married a software engineer with a hope that with two incomes he would have a good deal of money to plan their future.
"Let us face the reality, Vivek" Shobana says, "How much are you paying for the phone calls now? More than 20 grand per month.
If I am with you there will your phone bill be so astronomical? Just tell me one thing. Won't you be happy having me there with you?" Shobana slowly turns hysterical. Vivek gets into the crux of the situation. It is true.
He has been spending around 600 to 700 dollars per month on India calls... that is far more than what Shobana is getting then. He thinks and thinks.. for two days he does nothing else but thinking. Finally he decides that he should have Shobana with him all the time from then onwards at any cost.
Shobana gladly prepares the resignation letter and submits it. Her PL smiles and says "You've made the right decision Shobana..
Congratulations for the bold step. I understand your problems. Anyway! you have a three months notice period here, right? We have a one month assignment in Singapore..."
One fine day, Vivek's PL Bhatia asks him whether he has any time for a small meeting. Vivek obviously has time and so the two go to a conference room. Bhatia then clears his throat and says "Vivek, there is an on-site requirement. It is in Covina, Los Angeles. It is for six months. I can suggest your name. Do you have any problems?"
Vivek cannot believe his ears. Of course why should any one have problems going to the Sam land. "Of course no Bhatia.. I have no problems." he says.
Bhatia looks at him very kindly and says "You better draw up your personal plans with your wife and let me know in a day or two" That's when Vivek remembers that he has a wife. Then it strikes him that there is a himalayan problem in front of him. Shobana is working in Wipro. She is in the middle of a project in which she is a moduleleader. She cannot leave it all and come to Covinawith Vivek. On the otherhand it will be cruel on Vivek's part to leave her here and go to Covinafor more than half a year. Moreover, they have just been married. Vivek can stay back. But one day he has to go..
He cannot stay back in India indefinitely. Project requirements are too
demanding. Shobana can resign Wipro and accompany Vivek. But what is the guarantee that she would find such a nice job in such a nice company after they come back from Covina? So Shobana and Vivek discuss this issue. They reluctantly agree to get separated for six months.
Vivek hugs Shobana in the airport and says "I will be BACK" in a typical Arnold Schwarzanegger tone and then boards Delta Airways leaving Shobana in tears. In Covina Vivek gets lots of work and his stay gets extended by two more months. The days and months move very slowly. Vivek starts counting even minutes.
During this period, Shobana's PL Ashish Mehta calls her one day and asks her whether she has any time for a small meeting. Shobana wonders what that meeting is.. They go to the conference room and Mehta tells her about a great on-site requirement in Berlin, Germany for their customer.
"It is for six months and you are most suited person for this. I am going to suggest your name. Do you have any problems?" Mehta asks her.
Shobana gets excited.. Berlin! She has never been out of India. So she instantly nods her head. Mehta then smiles and says "Okay discuss with your hubby and let me know in a day or two"
That's when Shobana gets the gravity of the situation. It will be two
months before Vivek can come home..... By the time Shobana will have left to Berlin for six months. Shobana cannot decline this as this is an important assignment. That night Vivek spends hundred dollars on telephone to discuss this matter with Shobana. Finally they decide to go ahead. Shobana breaks down in the phone and Vivek breaks down thinking about his phone bill. And then Shobana leaves to Berlin.
One month after that,Vivek comes back to India. Then Shobana calls him almost everyday and they discuss about all petty things on the phone. Shobana applies for a loan to clear her telephone bills. Vivek gets into a new project which is not yet started. His PL Prateek Ray calls him one day and says that he has to go to ToledoOhiofor the requirement analysis of that project. Vivek frantically says no. Shobana is arriving next month. He doesn't want to miss her. But Ray assures him that the work is only for one month and that he would be back before Shobana comes to India.
Thus Vivek flies to Toledo, Ohio and gets into the requirement analysis of the new project. That's when he comes to know how difficult it is to retrieve information from the users. You can design a system the user wants only when the user knows what he wants. Vivek gets baffled by the questions his users put..
"Do you think I need those fields "GMG_TYPE_HJHJ_TW" and "Auto_level_ind"?
What are they by the way?" The requirements analysis stage continues for three full months at this pace. Shobana comes to India one month after that. And she tells her PL that she doesn't want anymore on-site assignments. "I understand" says Mehta and she desperately waits for Vivek to come back to India. It has already been two months over a year since they last met. Vivek then gets the role of an on-site co-rdinator
for this customer.
He calls Shobana that night and they really don't know what to do. Shobana offers to resign her job and join him in Toledo. But she is getting 21 grand per month in India and Vivek doesn't want to lose that. "Two more months Shobana and I promise I will be back"
Shobana retorts back, "There is no solution for this problem." Vivek gets surprised. "What are you talking about?" he asks her. Shobana fights back her tears. "As long as I am in Wipro I will be getting a lot of on-site opportunities. Even if I decline all of them, what about you? You also work for a software company and there you need to go abroad almost once every quarter.
I cannot accompany you as you don't want me to resign my job here. Does that mean we have to stay like this forever? Vivek! I love you and I don't know how I spent fifteen months without even seeing you once.
I may not recognize you also if you come in front of me now... Tell me Vivek, is there a solution for this problem?" Vivek doesn't speak anything for a moment. He then realizes the truth in her sentences. It is a neverending problem.
But what about the 20 grand she is getting per month?
"Vivek, is money everything? Can't we comfortably live with what you are getting? Please Vivek, try to understand the situation" Shobana breaks down. Vivek is still undecided. He married a software engineer with a hope that with two incomes he would have a good deal of money to plan their future.
"Let us face the reality, Vivek" Shobana says, "How much are you paying for the phone calls now? More than 20 grand per month.
If I am with you there will your phone bill be so astronomical? Just tell me one thing. Won't you be happy having me there with you?" Shobana slowly turns hysterical. Vivek gets into the crux of the situation. It is true.
He has been spending around 600 to 700 dollars per month on India calls... that is far more than what Shobana is getting then. He thinks and thinks.. for two days he does nothing else but thinking. Finally he decides that he should have Shobana with him all the time from then onwards at any cost.
Shobana gladly prepares the resignation letter and submits it. Her PL smiles and says "You've made the right decision Shobana..
Congratulations for the bold step. I understand your problems. Anyway! you have a three months notice period here, right? We have a one month assignment in Singapore..."
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Thirst
A long time ago, there was an Emperor who told his horseman that if he could ride on his horse and cover as much land area as he likes, then the Emperor would give him the area of land he has covered.
Sure enough, the horseman quickly jumped onto his horse and rode as fast as possible to cover as much land area as he could. He kept on riding and riding, whipping the horse to go as fast as possible. When he was hungry or tired, he did not stop because he wanted to cover as much area as possible.
Came to a point when he had covered a substantial area and he was exhausted and was dying. Then he asked himself, "Why did I push myself so hard to cover so much land area? Now I am dying and I only need a very small area to bury myself."
The above story is similar with the journey of our Life. We push very hard everyday to make more money, to gain power and recognition. We neglect our health, time with our family and to appreciate the surrounding beauty and the hobbies we love.
One day when we look back, we will realize that we don't really need that much, but then we cannot turn back time for what we have missed.
Life is not about making money, acquiring power or recognition. Life is definitely not about work! Work is only necessary to keep us living so as to enjoy the beauty and pleasures of life. Life is a balance of Work and Play, Family and Personal time You have to decide how you want to balance your Life. Define your priorities, realize what you are able to compromise but always let some of your decisions be based on your instincts. Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of Life, the whole aim of human existence. So, take it easy, do what you want to do and appreciate nature. Life is fragile, Life is short. Do not take Life for granted.
Live a balanced lifestyle and enjoy Life!
Sure enough, the horseman quickly jumped onto his horse and rode as fast as possible to cover as much land area as he could. He kept on riding and riding, whipping the horse to go as fast as possible. When he was hungry or tired, he did not stop because he wanted to cover as much area as possible.
Came to a point when he had covered a substantial area and he was exhausted and was dying. Then he asked himself, "Why did I push myself so hard to cover so much land area? Now I am dying and I only need a very small area to bury myself."
The above story is similar with the journey of our Life. We push very hard everyday to make more money, to gain power and recognition. We neglect our health, time with our family and to appreciate the surrounding beauty and the hobbies we love.
One day when we look back, we will realize that we don't really need that much, but then we cannot turn back time for what we have missed.
Life is not about making money, acquiring power or recognition. Life is definitely not about work! Work is only necessary to keep us living so as to enjoy the beauty and pleasures of life. Life is a balance of Work and Play, Family and Personal time You have to decide how you want to balance your Life. Define your priorities, realize what you are able to compromise but always let some of your decisions be based on your instincts. Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of Life, the whole aim of human existence. So, take it easy, do what you want to do and appreciate nature. Life is fragile, Life is short. Do not take Life for granted.
Live a balanced lifestyle and enjoy Life!
Twenty Something
Being a twenty-something
It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are many things about yourself that you didn't know and may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now.
You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends that you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatest people you have ever met, and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones. What you don't recognize is that they are realizing that too, and aren't really cold, catty, mean or insincere, but that they are as confused as you.
You look at wat u r studyin or ur job... and it is not even close to that you thought you would be doing, or maybe you are looking for a job and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and that scares you.
Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have certain boundaries in your life and are constantly adding things to your list of what is acceptable and what isn't. One minute, you are insecure and then the next, secure.
You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life. You feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly, change is the enemy and you try and cling on to the past with dear life, but soon realize that the past is
drifting further and further away, and there is nothing to do but stay where you are or move forward.
You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could do such damage to you. Or you lie in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyone decent enough that you want to get to know better. Or maybe you love someone! but love someone else too and cannot figure out why
you're doing this because you know that you aren't a bad person.
Getting wasted and acting like an idiot starts to look pathetic. You go through the same emotions and questions over and over, and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision. You worry about loans, money, the future and making a life for yourself... and while winning the race would be great, right now you are scared just to be a contender!
What you may not realize is that every one reading this relates to it. We are in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we can to figure this whole thing out. Send this to your friends... maybe it will help someone feel like they aren't alone in their state of confusion...
Its called "Quarter-life Crisis." nothing is constant......except change ;-)
Whats life without a few risks? keep playing the game !
It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are many things about yourself that you didn't know and may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now.
You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends that you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatest people you have ever met, and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones. What you don't recognize is that they are realizing that too, and aren't really cold, catty, mean or insincere, but that they are as confused as you.
You look at wat u r studyin or ur job... and it is not even close to that you thought you would be doing, or maybe you are looking for a job and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and that scares you.
Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have certain boundaries in your life and are constantly adding things to your list of what is acceptable and what isn't. One minute, you are insecure and then the next, secure.
You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life. You feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly, change is the enemy and you try and cling on to the past with dear life, but soon realize that the past is
drifting further and further away, and there is nothing to do but stay where you are or move forward.
You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could do such damage to you. Or you lie in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyone decent enough that you want to get to know better. Or maybe you love someone! but love someone else too and cannot figure out why
you're doing this because you know that you aren't a bad person.
Getting wasted and acting like an idiot starts to look pathetic. You go through the same emotions and questions over and over, and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision. You worry about loans, money, the future and making a life for yourself... and while winning the race would be great, right now you are scared just to be a contender!
What you may not realize is that every one reading this relates to it. We are in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we can to figure this whole thing out. Send this to your friends... maybe it will help someone feel like they aren't alone in their state of confusion...
Its called "Quarter-life Crisis." nothing is constant......except change ;-)
Whats life without a few risks? keep playing the game !
Zen Commandments - Osho
My first request or invitation is Don't let your doubt die.
That is the most precious thing you have got, because it is doubt that oneday is going to help you discover the truth.I would like it to be my firstrequest to you: doubt until you discover. Do not believe until you come toknow yourself. Once you believe, you will never be able to know on yourown.Doubt, and go on doubting until you come to a point that you cannotdoubt anymore. And you cannot doubt anymore only when you come to knowsomething on your own. Then there is no question of doubt, there is no wayto doubt. So this is my first request.
My second request: Never imitate
The mind is an imitator, because imitation is very easy. To be someone isvery difficult. To become someone is very easy -- all that you need is tobe a hypocrite, which is not much of a problem. Deep down you remain thesame, but on the surface you go on painting yourself according to someimage,this is not in the very nature of the universe. It only createsunique beings. It has no idea at all of carbon copies, duplicators,cyclostyled material; existence has no idea -- just the original. And eachindividual is so unique and original. Anything original has beauty,freshness, fragrance, aliveness. Anything that is imitated is dead, dull,phony, plastic.So the second request is: Don't imitate. If you want to know who you are,please avoid imitation, that's a way of avoiding knowing yourself
My third request is: Beware of knowledge
So the third thing is to beware of knowledge, to be so alert that wheneveryou want, you can put your knowledge aside and it will not block yourvision. It will not come between you and reality.Knowledge is a barrier to life.Put aside your knowledge! And then look withempty eyes...and life is a constant surprise. And I am not talking aboutsome divine life -- the ordinary life is so extraordinary. In smallincidents you will find the presence of God -- a child giggling, a dogbarking, a peacock dancing. But you can't see if your eyes are covered withknowledge. The poorest man in the world is the man who lives behind acurtain of knowledge.The poorest are those who live through the mind. Therichest are those who have opened the windows of no-mind and approachedlife with the no-mind.
The fourth thing... I will not say "pray" because there is no God to prayto.
My word for prayer is love. Forget the word prayer, replace it withlove.Love is not for some invisible God. Love is for the visible -- humanbeings, animals, trees, oceans, mountains. Spread your wings of love as farand wide as you can.
The fifth thing I would like to say to you: Live moment to moment.
Go on dying every moment to the past. It is finished. There is no need evento label it good or bad. The only thing to know is: it is finished, it isno more. It is going to be no more... gone and gone forever; now why wastetime about it?
Never think of the past, because you are wasting the present, which is theonly real thing in your hand. And never think of the future, because nobodyknows how tomorrow is going to be, what tomorrow is going to be, how it isgoing to turn out, where you are going to land -- you cannot imagine.
Remain in the moment, true to the moment, utterly here now, as if there hasbeen no yesterday and there is going to be no tomorrow -- only then can yoube here now totally. And that totality of being in the present joins youwith existence, because existence knows no past, no future. It is alwayshere now. Existence knows only one tense that is the present tense. It islanguage which creates three tenses, and creates three thousand tensions inyour mind. Existence knows only one tense, and that is present: and it isnot a tension at all, it is utterly relaxing. When you are totally here, noyesterdays pulling you back and no tomorrows pulling you somewhere else,you are relaxed.
To me, to be in the moment is meditation, to be utterly in the moment. Andthen it is so beautiful, so fragrant, and so fresh. It never gets old. Itnever goes anywhere.
It is we who come and pass; existence remains as it is. It is not time thatpasses, it is we who come and pass. But it is a fallacy: rather than seeingthat we are passing, we have created a great invention, the clock -- timepasses. Just think, if there is no man on the earth will there be any timepassing? Things will be all there, the ocean will still be coming to thebeach, crashing its waves on the rocks. The sun will rise, the sun willset, but there will be no morning, there will be no evening. There will beno time as such. Time is a mind invention, and basically time can existonly with yesterdays and tomorrows; the present moment is not part of time.When you are simply here, just now, there is no time. You are breathing,you are alive, you are feeling, you are open to everything that ishappening all around.
When your every moment starts becoming meditation, you are religious.
That is the most precious thing you have got, because it is doubt that oneday is going to help you discover the truth.I would like it to be my firstrequest to you: doubt until you discover. Do not believe until you come toknow yourself. Once you believe, you will never be able to know on yourown.Doubt, and go on doubting until you come to a point that you cannotdoubt anymore. And you cannot doubt anymore only when you come to knowsomething on your own. Then there is no question of doubt, there is no wayto doubt. So this is my first request.
My second request: Never imitate
The mind is an imitator, because imitation is very easy. To be someone isvery difficult. To become someone is very easy -- all that you need is tobe a hypocrite, which is not much of a problem. Deep down you remain thesame, but on the surface you go on painting yourself according to someimage,this is not in the very nature of the universe. It only createsunique beings. It has no idea at all of carbon copies, duplicators,cyclostyled material; existence has no idea -- just the original. And eachindividual is so unique and original. Anything original has beauty,freshness, fragrance, aliveness. Anything that is imitated is dead, dull,phony, plastic.So the second request is: Don't imitate. If you want to know who you are,please avoid imitation, that's a way of avoiding knowing yourself
My third request is: Beware of knowledge
So the third thing is to beware of knowledge, to be so alert that wheneveryou want, you can put your knowledge aside and it will not block yourvision. It will not come between you and reality.Knowledge is a barrier to life.Put aside your knowledge! And then look withempty eyes...and life is a constant surprise. And I am not talking aboutsome divine life -- the ordinary life is so extraordinary. In smallincidents you will find the presence of God -- a child giggling, a dogbarking, a peacock dancing. But you can't see if your eyes are covered withknowledge. The poorest man in the world is the man who lives behind acurtain of knowledge.The poorest are those who live through the mind. Therichest are those who have opened the windows of no-mind and approachedlife with the no-mind.
The fourth thing... I will not say "pray" because there is no God to prayto.
My word for prayer is love. Forget the word prayer, replace it withlove.Love is not for some invisible God. Love is for the visible -- humanbeings, animals, trees, oceans, mountains. Spread your wings of love as farand wide as you can.
The fifth thing I would like to say to you: Live moment to moment.
Go on dying every moment to the past. It is finished. There is no need evento label it good or bad. The only thing to know is: it is finished, it isno more. It is going to be no more... gone and gone forever; now why wastetime about it?
Never think of the past, because you are wasting the present, which is theonly real thing in your hand. And never think of the future, because nobodyknows how tomorrow is going to be, what tomorrow is going to be, how it isgoing to turn out, where you are going to land -- you cannot imagine.
Remain in the moment, true to the moment, utterly here now, as if there hasbeen no yesterday and there is going to be no tomorrow -- only then can yoube here now totally. And that totality of being in the present joins youwith existence, because existence knows no past, no future. It is alwayshere now. Existence knows only one tense that is the present tense. It islanguage which creates three tenses, and creates three thousand tensions inyour mind. Existence knows only one tense, and that is present: and it isnot a tension at all, it is utterly relaxing. When you are totally here, noyesterdays pulling you back and no tomorrows pulling you somewhere else,you are relaxed.
To me, to be in the moment is meditation, to be utterly in the moment. Andthen it is so beautiful, so fragrant, and so fresh. It never gets old. Itnever goes anywhere.
It is we who come and pass; existence remains as it is. It is not time thatpasses, it is we who come and pass. But it is a fallacy: rather than seeingthat we are passing, we have created a great invention, the clock -- timepasses. Just think, if there is no man on the earth will there be any timepassing? Things will be all there, the ocean will still be coming to thebeach, crashing its waves on the rocks. The sun will rise, the sun willset, but there will be no morning, there will be no evening. There will beno time as such. Time is a mind invention, and basically time can existonly with yesterdays and tomorrows; the present moment is not part of time.When you are simply here, just now, there is no time. You are breathing,you are alive, you are feeling, you are open to everything that ishappening all around.
When your every moment starts becoming meditation, you are religious.
Grasshopper
OLD VERSION...
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.
MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house.
Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other grasshoppers demanding that grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter.
Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper.
The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance).
Opposition MP's stage a walkout. Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry. CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among ants and grasshoppers.
Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.
Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]", with effect from the beginning of the winter.
Arjun Singh makes Special Reservation for Grass Hopper in educational Institutions & in Govt Services.
The ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.
Arundhati Roy calls it "a triumph of justice". Lalu calls it'Socialistic Justice'. CPM calls it the 'revolutionary resurgence of the downtrodden' Koffi Annan invites the grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.
Many years later...The ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi billion dollar company in Silicon Valley. 100s of grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India.
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.
MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house.
Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other grasshoppers demanding that grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter.
Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper.
The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance).
Opposition MP's stage a walkout. Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry. CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among ants and grasshoppers.
Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.
Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]", with effect from the beginning of the winter.
Arjun Singh makes Special Reservation for Grass Hopper in educational Institutions & in Govt Services.
The ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.
Arundhati Roy calls it "a triumph of justice". Lalu calls it'Socialistic Justice'. CPM calls it the 'revolutionary resurgence of the downtrodden' Koffi Annan invites the grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.
Many years later...The ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi billion dollar company in Silicon Valley. 100s of grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India.
Dialogues (Bollywood)
20. Bhaiya !!!!!!!!!!
19.Nikal jaa mere ghar say...!!!!!! !!!!
18. khabardaar joe mujhay haat bhee lagaya...... .....warna mein apni
jaan de dongi.
17. gurkha, ise dhakke maarke bahar nikal do.
16. Ab hum kisi ko muh dikhane ke layak nahin rahe
15. (hero/heroine opening their eyes on a hospital bed) Main kahan
hun?
14. Kya isi din ke liye tujhe paida kiya tha?
13. "Maa......!! !! main B.A.first class first pass ho gaya hu"
followed by the "jug jug jiyo beta. aj tere pita hote to kitna
kush hote"
12. Ye aap kya kah rahe hai bhai-sahab.
11.Thakur daya karo.......Ghar mein do jawan betiya hai.
10. Kuttay, Kameenay.... .....!!!! !!! mai tumhe jaan se maar doonga
9. Mai tumhara ehasaan zindagi bhar nahin bhuloonga
8. Itnay paisay tum kahan se laaye....... ...?????
7. Main tumharay bina mar jaa-oongi.
6. Bacchhhaaaaaooooo. .....
5. Chhodiye na.......... ......!!! !!!!! log kya kahenge
4. Bataoo, heeray kahan hai......... ..????
3. Tum mere liye mar chuke ho.
2. Police meeray peechay lagi hui hai.
And there is a tie for number one dialogue .......
1. Mai tumharay bachhe ki maa ban-nay waali hoon.
or
1.Use hath lagane se pehle tumhe meri lash par se gujarna hoga
or
1."Humare yah nanha mehman ane wala hai" followed by "Sach"
19.Nikal jaa mere ghar say...!!!!!! !!!!
18. khabardaar joe mujhay haat bhee lagaya...... .....warna mein apni
jaan de dongi.
17. gurkha, ise dhakke maarke bahar nikal do.
16. Ab hum kisi ko muh dikhane ke layak nahin rahe
15. (hero/heroine opening their eyes on a hospital bed) Main kahan
hun?
14. Kya isi din ke liye tujhe paida kiya tha?
13. "Maa......!! !! main B.A.first class first pass ho gaya hu"
followed by the "jug jug jiyo beta. aj tere pita hote to kitna
kush hote"
12. Ye aap kya kah rahe hai bhai-sahab.
11.Thakur daya karo.......Ghar mein do jawan betiya hai.
10. Kuttay, Kameenay.... .....!!!! !!! mai tumhe jaan se maar doonga
9. Mai tumhara ehasaan zindagi bhar nahin bhuloonga
8. Itnay paisay tum kahan se laaye....... ...?????
7. Main tumharay bina mar jaa-oongi.
6. Bacchhhaaaaaooooo. .....
5. Chhodiye na.......... ......!!! !!!!! log kya kahenge
4. Bataoo, heeray kahan hai......... ..????
3. Tum mere liye mar chuke ho.
2. Police meeray peechay lagi hui hai.
And there is a tie for number one dialogue .......
1. Mai tumharay bachhe ki maa ban-nay waali hoon.
or
1.Use hath lagane se pehle tumhe meri lash par se gujarna hoga
or
1."Humare yah nanha mehman ane wala hai" followed by "Sach"
Ego - Osho
I have told you a story that I love.... A Japanese king went to see Master Lin Chi. He touched the feet of the master and before he could say anything, Lin Chi said, "You idiot! You don't know even manners."
The king completely forgot for what he had come. He pulled out his sword, and Lin Chi laughed. He said, "You have forgotten your question. Now I remind you" -- because the king had sent his prime minister before him to inform Lin Chi that he is coming and his question is, "What is hell and what is heaven?" Now, when the sword was just about to fall on his neck, Lin Chi said, "Wait a minute! This is the door of hell."
The king was shocked. His hand stopped. He put back the sword in the sheath, and Lin Chi said, "That is the door of heaven. You had forgotten your question, but your prime minister told me. It was good that he told me before, otherwise you would have killed a poor man unnecessarily, and you would have suffered hell -- because hell is not anywhere else but in your ego. When I said, `You idiot!' what was the trouble? Why did you become so angry? Who was hurt? It is your ego that was hurt."
If you don't have any ego, it doesn't matter whether somebody says you are an idiot or somebody says you are a genius. It does not matter... they are their opinions. You know who you are -- you don't depend on other people's opinions. Your ego depends. Your ego keeps you a slave of the society in which you live. Ordinarily people think that their ego is something very precious. It is nothing but their slavery.
A man becomes independent and free and individual only when he has dropped his ego, when he is just a silent being, without any idea of "I" -- just a pure silence... THIS silence. And if in this silence you look inward, you will not find any "I," any ego, any self, but just a pure space.
This pure space is your spirituality. This pure space is your enlightenment. This pure space is your ultimate ecstasy.
The ego is preventing everything. Ego is making you a beggar, while you are an emperor of a great empire. Of course, that empire does not belong to the outside world; it is in your own being, but its vastness is as big as the universe itself. Your ego is keeping you encaged, imprisoned. Don't nourish it... and I am saying it because I know it is everybody's possibility not to nourish the ego and to get out into the open sky. Nivedano, learn to laugh at your own ego. The moment you are gripped by your ego, relax and have a good laugh.
And don't be worried... and I know you are crazy, you will not be worried what people think about you. But if you can laugh at your ego, that is the best way to kill it. Don't be serious about your ego, because that is very nourishing food for the ego. That's why all egoists are serious people.
The people who can laugh and enjoy and be playful are never egoists. It is on this particular point that I disagree with all the religions of the world. They have made people's egos very strong by teaching them to be serious about life.
My effort is to erase the tremendous impact of millions of years of religious training. On the one hand they say, "Drop the ego," and on the other hand they don't allow the childlike playfulness.... On the one hand they go on insisting, "Drop the ego," and on the other hand they don't have any sense of humor.
No religion in the world has accepted a sense of humor as one of the fundamental religious qualities. I accept it, and I want that no religion can possibly exist in the future unless it has as a fundamental quality the sense of humor. A religion without laughter... a God who cannot laugh and dance and sing is not worthy of being God. Send him to hell!
The king completely forgot for what he had come. He pulled out his sword, and Lin Chi laughed. He said, "You have forgotten your question. Now I remind you" -- because the king had sent his prime minister before him to inform Lin Chi that he is coming and his question is, "What is hell and what is heaven?" Now, when the sword was just about to fall on his neck, Lin Chi said, "Wait a minute! This is the door of hell."
The king was shocked. His hand stopped. He put back the sword in the sheath, and Lin Chi said, "That is the door of heaven. You had forgotten your question, but your prime minister told me. It was good that he told me before, otherwise you would have killed a poor man unnecessarily, and you would have suffered hell -- because hell is not anywhere else but in your ego. When I said, `You idiot!' what was the trouble? Why did you become so angry? Who was hurt? It is your ego that was hurt."
If you don't have any ego, it doesn't matter whether somebody says you are an idiot or somebody says you are a genius. It does not matter... they are their opinions. You know who you are -- you don't depend on other people's opinions. Your ego depends. Your ego keeps you a slave of the society in which you live. Ordinarily people think that their ego is something very precious. It is nothing but their slavery.
A man becomes independent and free and individual only when he has dropped his ego, when he is just a silent being, without any idea of "I" -- just a pure silence... THIS silence. And if in this silence you look inward, you will not find any "I," any ego, any self, but just a pure space.
This pure space is your spirituality. This pure space is your enlightenment. This pure space is your ultimate ecstasy.
The ego is preventing everything. Ego is making you a beggar, while you are an emperor of a great empire. Of course, that empire does not belong to the outside world; it is in your own being, but its vastness is as big as the universe itself. Your ego is keeping you encaged, imprisoned. Don't nourish it... and I am saying it because I know it is everybody's possibility not to nourish the ego and to get out into the open sky. Nivedano, learn to laugh at your own ego. The moment you are gripped by your ego, relax and have a good laugh.
And don't be worried... and I know you are crazy, you will not be worried what people think about you. But if you can laugh at your ego, that is the best way to kill it. Don't be serious about your ego, because that is very nourishing food for the ego. That's why all egoists are serious people.
The people who can laugh and enjoy and be playful are never egoists. It is on this particular point that I disagree with all the religions of the world. They have made people's egos very strong by teaching them to be serious about life.
My effort is to erase the tremendous impact of millions of years of religious training. On the one hand they say, "Drop the ego," and on the other hand they don't allow the childlike playfulness.... On the one hand they go on insisting, "Drop the ego," and on the other hand they don't have any sense of humor.
No religion in the world has accepted a sense of humor as one of the fundamental religious qualities. I accept it, and I want that no religion can possibly exist in the future unless it has as a fundamental quality the sense of humor. A religion without laughter... a God who cannot laugh and dance and sing is not worthy of being God. Send him to hell!
Aztecs
The Aztecs/Mexicas were the Native American people who dominated northern México at the time of the Spanish conquest led by Hernan CORTES in the early 16th century. According to their own legends, they originated from a place called Aztlan, somewhere in north or northwest Mexico. At that time the Aztecs (who referred to themselves as the Mexica or Tenochca) were a small, nomadic, Nahuatl-speaking aggregation of tribal peoples living on the margins of civilized Mesoamerica. Sometime in the 12th century they embarked on a period of wandering and in the 13th century settled in the central basin of México. Continually dislodged by the small city-states that fought one another in shifting alliances, the Aztecs finally found refuge on small islands in Lake Texcoco where, in 1325, they founded the town of TENOCHTITLAN (modern-day Mexico City). The term Aztec, originally associated with the migrant Mexica, is today a collective term, applied to all the peoples linked by trade, custom, religion, and language to these founders.
Fearless warriors and pragmatic builders, the Aztecs created an empire during the 15th century that was surpassed in size in the Americas only by that of the Incas in Peru. As early texts and modern archaeology continue to reveal, beyond their conquests and many of their religious practices, there were many positive achievements:
the formation of a highly specialized and stratified society and an imperial administration
the expansion of a trading network as well as a tribute system
the development and maintenance of a sophisticated agricultural economy, carefully adjusted to the land and the cultivation of an intellectual and religious outlook that held society to be an integral part of the cosmos.
The yearly round of rites and ceremonies in the cities of Tenochtitlan and neighboring Tetzcoco, and their symbolic art and architecture, gave expression to an ancient awareness of the interdependence of nature and humanity.
The Aztecs remain the most extensively documented of all Amerindian civilizations at the time of European contact in the 16th century. Spanish friars, soldiers, and historians and scholars of Indian or mixed descent left invaluable records of all aspects of life. These ethnohistoric sources, linked to modern archaeological inquiries and studies of ethnologists, linguists, historians, and art historians, portray the formation and flourishing of a complex imperial state.
Clockwise, the days of the Aztec Calendar are as follows:
Twenty Days of the Aztec Month
Snake - Coatl
Lizard - Cuetzpallin
House - Calli
Wind - Ehecatl
Crocodile - Cipactli
Flower - Xochitl
Rain - Quiahuitl
Flint - Tecpatl
Movement - Ollin
Vulture - Cozcacuauhtli
Eagle - Cuauhtle
Jaguar - Ocelotl
Cane - Acatl
Herb - Malinalli
Monkey - Ozomatli
Hairless Dog - Itzquintli
Water - Atl
Rabbit - Tochtli
Deer - Mazatl
Skull - Miquiztli
________________________________
Aztec Gods
Religion was extremely important in Aztec life. They worshipped hundreds of gods and goddesses, each of whom ruled one or more human activities or aspects of nature. The people had many agricultural gods because their culture was based heavily on farming; also they included natural elements and ancestor-heroes. These gods included:
CENTEOTL, the corn god.
COATLICUE - She of the Serpent Skirt.
EHECATL, the god of wind.
HUEHUETEOTL, "the old, old deity," was one of the names of the cult of fire, among the oldest in Mesoamerica. The maintenance of fires in the temples was a principal priestly duty, and the renewal of fire was identified with the renewal of time itself.
HUITZILOPOCHTLI, (the war/sun god and special guardian of Tenochtitlan) the deified ancestral warrior-hero, was the Mexica-Aztec patron par excellence. His temple (next to that of Tlaloc) on the Main Pyramid was the focus of fearsome sacrifices of prisoners captured by Aztec warriors. Victims' heads were strung as trophies on a great rack, the Tzompantli, erected in the precinct below.
MICTLANTECUHTLE, god of the dead.
OMETECUHLTI and his wife OMECIHUATL created all life in the world.
QUETZALCOATL, (the god of civilization and learning) "quetzal (feather) serpent," had dozens of associations. It was the name of a deity, a royal title, the name of a legendary priest-ruler, a title of high priestly office. But its most fundamental significance as a natural force is symbolized by the sculpture of a coiled plumed serpent rising from a base whose underside is carved with the symbols of the earth deity and Tlaloc. The image of the serpent rising from the earth and bearing water on its tail is explained in the Nahuatl language by a description of Quetzalcoatl in terms of the rise of a powerful thunderstorm sweeping down, with wind raising dust before bringing rain.
TEZCATLIPOCA, (god of Night and Sorcery) "Smoking Mirror" (obsidian), characterized as the most powerful, supreme deity, was associated with the notion of destiny. His cult was particularly identified with royalty, for Tezcatlipoca was the object of the lengthy and reverent prayers in rites of kingship.
TLALOC, the rain deity, belonged to another most memorable and universal cult of ancient Mexico. The name may be Aztec, but the idea of a storm god especially identified with mountaintop shrines and life-giving rain was certainly as old as Teotihuacan. The primary temple of this major deity was located atop Mt. Tlaloc, where human victims were sacrificed to fertilize water-rocks within the sacred enclosure. In Tenochtitlan another Tlaloc temple shared the platform atop the dual Main Pyramid, a symbolic mountain.
TONATIUH, the sun, was perceived as a primary source of life whose special devotees were the warriors. The warriors were charged with the mission to provide the sun with sacrificial victims. A special altar to the sun was used for sacrifices in coronation rites, a fact that signifies the importance of the deity. The east-west path of the sun determined the principal ritual axis in the design of Aztec cities.
TONANTZIN, "honored grandmother," was among the many names of the female earth-deity.
TEZCATLIPOCA, an all-powerful god; Tonatiuh, the sun god.
XILONEN, "young maize ear," and Chicomecoatl, "seven serpent," were principal deities of maize representing the chief staple of Mesoamerican peoples.
XIPE TOTEC, the god of springtime and regrowth.
XIUHTECUHTLE the fire god.
________________________________
The following is a list of Aztec Emperors:
NAME TRANSLATION DATES SERVED
TENOCH TUNA DE PIEDRA 1325-1375
ACAMAPICHTLI MANOJO DE CANAS 1376-1396
HUITZILIHUITL PLUMA DE COLIBRI 1397-1417
CHIMALPOPOCA ESCUDO HUMEANTE 1418-1427
ITZCOATL SERPIENTE DE OBSIDIANA 1428-1440
MOCTEZUMA ILHUICAMINA EL FLECHADOR DEL CIELO 1441-1469
AXAYACATL CARA DE AGUA 1470-1481
TIZOC PIERNA ENFERMA 1482-1486
AHUITZOTL PERRO DE AGUA 1487-1502
MOCTEZUMA XOCOYOTZIN EL SENOR VALEROSO 1503-1520
CUITALAHUAC EXCREMENTO SECO 1520-1521
________________________________
CUAUHTEMOC
(He who decends like an eagle.)
1520-1521
{koo-ow-tay'-mawk}
Cuauhtemoc, c.1495-1525, became ruler of the AZTECS in 1521, during the siege of TENOCHTITLAN, and led the final desperate resistance of that city against the Spanish conquistadors. After weeks of street fighting, he surrendered to Hernan CORTES. This act marked the end of the Aztec empire and the beginning of Spanish dominion in Mexico.
Cuauhtemoc was first treated kindly by the Spanish, then imprisoned and tortured, and finally hanged during Cortes's march to Honduras, on a charge of plotting treachery. A tomb below the church at his birthplace, Ixcateopan in Guerrero, is said to contain his remains, but not all scholars accept this attribution.
________________________________
Aztec Books, Documents, and Writing
Aztec Bibliography <mailto:web@PageGetter.com?subject=Press send to receive the page you requested - Automated request for webpage&body=http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rjsalvad/scmfaq/aztecbib.html>
Berdan, Frances F., and Anawalt, Patricia, eds., The Codex Mendoza, 4 vols. (1992)
Berdan, Frances. Aztecs of Central Mexico: An Imperial Society. Holt, 1982. Ethnographic reconstruction of preconquest Aztec culture.
Carrasco, David, ed., To Change Place: Aztec Ceremonial Landscapes (1991)
Caso, Alfonso. The Aztecs, People of the Sun. Oklahoma, 1978. Trans. Lowell Dunham. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1958. Contends that Aztecs were primarily religious people and lived accordingly.
Castillo, Bernal Diaz, The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico, trans. by A. P. Maudsley (1956)
Chimalpain's " Diferentes Historias Originales de los Reinos de Culhuacan y México y de Otras Provincias "
Clendinnen, Inga. Aztecs: An Interpretation. Cambridge, 1991. Describes the lives of "ordinary" Aztecs.
Cortes, Hernan, Letters from Mexico, trans. by A. R. Pagden (1971)
Cortez, Hernando ' "Cartas de Relación " (a series of five letters written by the conqueror to king Charles V, published in Spanish by Porrúa Hermanos and in English by Norton & Co. as translated by J. Bayard Morris)
Davies, Nigel. The Aztecs: A History. Oklahoma, 1980; 1986. Political history spanning 400-year empire before Spanish conquest.
del Castillo, Berná Diaz. Discovery and Conquest of Mexico. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Cudahy, 1956.
Duran, Diego 's "Book of the Gods and Rites and the Ancient Calendar " (translated by Doris Heyden and Fernando Horcasitas in a 1971 edition by the Univ. of Oklahoma Press)
Hassig, Ross. Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control. Oklahoma, 1988. An examination of the Aztec Empire in terms of its own goals and objectives.
Karen, Ruth. Feathered Serpent: The Rise and Fall of the Aztecs. Four Winds, 1979. The origins of the civilization, brutal cultural organization, and military conquest by Spaniards.
Leó, Miguel. The Aztec Image of Self and Society. Ed. J. Jorge Klow de Alva. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1992.
Leon-Portilla, Miguel. Aztec Image of Self and Society. Utah, 1992. "An Introduction to Nahua Culture" (subtitle).
Leon-Portilla, Miguel, ed. The Broken Spears: An Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico. Beacon, 1962. Translations of a selection of indigenous accounts of the conquest.
Leon-Portilla, Miguel's "Aztec Thought and Culture " (Univ. Oklahoma Press, 1963; several printings), A classic analysis of the Aztec mind, a translation of the author's 1956 Spanish original: "La FilosofíaNahuatl " (UNAM, Mexico City).
Matos Moctezuma, Eduardo. Aztecs. Rizzoli, 1989. Draws on both archaeological and ethnohistorical evidence.The Mighty Aztecs. National Geographic, 1981. Illustrated overview of their short-lived glories.
Moctezuma, Eduardo Matos. The Great Temple of the Aztecs. Trans. Doris Heyden. New York: Thames and Hudson, Ltd., 1988.
Soustelle, Jacques's "La Vida Cotidiana de los Aztecas en Vísperas de la Conquista " (1956, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico City, many printings), a translation from the original French work published in 1955.
Tezozomoc, Fernando Alvarado 's "Crónica Mexicayotl " (1975, UNAM, Mexico City).
Townsend, Richard F., The Aztecs (1992)
Weaver, Muriel Porter. The Aztecs, Maya, and Their Predecessors Archeology of Mesoamerica. New York: Seminar Press, 1972.
Fearless warriors and pragmatic builders, the Aztecs created an empire during the 15th century that was surpassed in size in the Americas only by that of the Incas in Peru. As early texts and modern archaeology continue to reveal, beyond their conquests and many of their religious practices, there were many positive achievements:
the formation of a highly specialized and stratified society and an imperial administration
the expansion of a trading network as well as a tribute system
the development and maintenance of a sophisticated agricultural economy, carefully adjusted to the land and the cultivation of an intellectual and religious outlook that held society to be an integral part of the cosmos.
The yearly round of rites and ceremonies in the cities of Tenochtitlan and neighboring Tetzcoco, and their symbolic art and architecture, gave expression to an ancient awareness of the interdependence of nature and humanity.
The Aztecs remain the most extensively documented of all Amerindian civilizations at the time of European contact in the 16th century. Spanish friars, soldiers, and historians and scholars of Indian or mixed descent left invaluable records of all aspects of life. These ethnohistoric sources, linked to modern archaeological inquiries and studies of ethnologists, linguists, historians, and art historians, portray the formation and flourishing of a complex imperial state.
Clockwise, the days of the Aztec Calendar are as follows:
Twenty Days of the Aztec Month
Snake - Coatl
Lizard - Cuetzpallin
House - Calli
Wind - Ehecatl
Crocodile - Cipactli
Flower - Xochitl
Rain - Quiahuitl
Flint - Tecpatl
Movement - Ollin
Vulture - Cozcacuauhtli
Eagle - Cuauhtle
Jaguar - Ocelotl
Cane - Acatl
Herb - Malinalli
Monkey - Ozomatli
Hairless Dog - Itzquintli
Water - Atl
Rabbit - Tochtli
Deer - Mazatl
Skull - Miquiztli
________________________________
Aztec Gods
Religion was extremely important in Aztec life. They worshipped hundreds of gods and goddesses, each of whom ruled one or more human activities or aspects of nature. The people had many agricultural gods because their culture was based heavily on farming; also they included natural elements and ancestor-heroes. These gods included:
CENTEOTL, the corn god.
COATLICUE - She of the Serpent Skirt.
EHECATL, the god of wind.
HUEHUETEOTL, "the old, old deity," was one of the names of the cult of fire, among the oldest in Mesoamerica. The maintenance of fires in the temples was a principal priestly duty, and the renewal of fire was identified with the renewal of time itself.
HUITZILOPOCHTLI, (the war/sun god and special guardian of Tenochtitlan) the deified ancestral warrior-hero, was the Mexica-Aztec patron par excellence. His temple (next to that of Tlaloc) on the Main Pyramid was the focus of fearsome sacrifices of prisoners captured by Aztec warriors. Victims' heads were strung as trophies on a great rack, the Tzompantli, erected in the precinct below.
MICTLANTECUHTLE, god of the dead.
OMETECUHLTI and his wife OMECIHUATL created all life in the world.
QUETZALCOATL, (the god of civilization and learning) "quetzal (feather) serpent," had dozens of associations. It was the name of a deity, a royal title, the name of a legendary priest-ruler, a title of high priestly office. But its most fundamental significance as a natural force is symbolized by the sculpture of a coiled plumed serpent rising from a base whose underside is carved with the symbols of the earth deity and Tlaloc. The image of the serpent rising from the earth and bearing water on its tail is explained in the Nahuatl language by a description of Quetzalcoatl in terms of the rise of a powerful thunderstorm sweeping down, with wind raising dust before bringing rain.
TEZCATLIPOCA, (god of Night and Sorcery) "Smoking Mirror" (obsidian), characterized as the most powerful, supreme deity, was associated with the notion of destiny. His cult was particularly identified with royalty, for Tezcatlipoca was the object of the lengthy and reverent prayers in rites of kingship.
TLALOC, the rain deity, belonged to another most memorable and universal cult of ancient Mexico. The name may be Aztec, but the idea of a storm god especially identified with mountaintop shrines and life-giving rain was certainly as old as Teotihuacan. The primary temple of this major deity was located atop Mt. Tlaloc, where human victims were sacrificed to fertilize water-rocks within the sacred enclosure. In Tenochtitlan another Tlaloc temple shared the platform atop the dual Main Pyramid, a symbolic mountain.
TONATIUH, the sun, was perceived as a primary source of life whose special devotees were the warriors. The warriors were charged with the mission to provide the sun with sacrificial victims. A special altar to the sun was used for sacrifices in coronation rites, a fact that signifies the importance of the deity. The east-west path of the sun determined the principal ritual axis in the design of Aztec cities.
TONANTZIN, "honored grandmother," was among the many names of the female earth-deity.
TEZCATLIPOCA, an all-powerful god; Tonatiuh, the sun god.
XILONEN, "young maize ear," and Chicomecoatl, "seven serpent," were principal deities of maize representing the chief staple of Mesoamerican peoples.
XIPE TOTEC, the god of springtime and regrowth.
XIUHTECUHTLE the fire god.
________________________________
The following is a list of Aztec Emperors:
NAME TRANSLATION DATES SERVED
TENOCH TUNA DE PIEDRA 1325-1375
ACAMAPICHTLI MANOJO DE CANAS 1376-1396
HUITZILIHUITL PLUMA DE COLIBRI 1397-1417
CHIMALPOPOCA ESCUDO HUMEANTE 1418-1427
ITZCOATL SERPIENTE DE OBSIDIANA 1428-1440
MOCTEZUMA ILHUICAMINA EL FLECHADOR DEL CIELO 1441-1469
AXAYACATL CARA DE AGUA 1470-1481
TIZOC PIERNA ENFERMA 1482-1486
AHUITZOTL PERRO DE AGUA 1487-1502
MOCTEZUMA XOCOYOTZIN EL SENOR VALEROSO 1503-1520
CUITALAHUAC EXCREMENTO SECO 1520-1521
________________________________
CUAUHTEMOC
(He who decends like an eagle.)
1520-1521
{koo-ow-tay'-mawk}
Cuauhtemoc, c.1495-1525, became ruler of the AZTECS in 1521, during the siege of TENOCHTITLAN, and led the final desperate resistance of that city against the Spanish conquistadors. After weeks of street fighting, he surrendered to Hernan CORTES. This act marked the end of the Aztec empire and the beginning of Spanish dominion in Mexico.
Cuauhtemoc was first treated kindly by the Spanish, then imprisoned and tortured, and finally hanged during Cortes's march to Honduras, on a charge of plotting treachery. A tomb below the church at his birthplace, Ixcateopan in Guerrero, is said to contain his remains, but not all scholars accept this attribution.
________________________________
Aztec Books, Documents, and Writing
Aztec Bibliography <mailto:web@PageGetter.com?subject=Press send to receive the page you requested - Automated request for webpage&body=http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rjsalvad/scmfaq/aztecbib.html>
Berdan, Frances F., and Anawalt, Patricia, eds., The Codex Mendoza, 4 vols. (1992)
Berdan, Frances. Aztecs of Central Mexico: An Imperial Society. Holt, 1982. Ethnographic reconstruction of preconquest Aztec culture.
Carrasco, David, ed., To Change Place: Aztec Ceremonial Landscapes (1991)
Caso, Alfonso. The Aztecs, People of the Sun. Oklahoma, 1978. Trans. Lowell Dunham. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1958. Contends that Aztecs were primarily religious people and lived accordingly.
Castillo, Bernal Diaz, The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico, trans. by A. P. Maudsley (1956)
Chimalpain's " Diferentes Historias Originales de los Reinos de Culhuacan y México y de Otras Provincias "
Clendinnen, Inga. Aztecs: An Interpretation. Cambridge, 1991. Describes the lives of "ordinary" Aztecs.
Cortes, Hernan, Letters from Mexico, trans. by A. R. Pagden (1971)
Cortez, Hernando ' "Cartas de Relación " (a series of five letters written by the conqueror to king Charles V, published in Spanish by Porrúa Hermanos and in English by Norton & Co. as translated by J. Bayard Morris)
Davies, Nigel. The Aztecs: A History. Oklahoma, 1980; 1986. Political history spanning 400-year empire before Spanish conquest.
del Castillo, Berná Diaz. Discovery and Conquest of Mexico. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Cudahy, 1956.
Duran, Diego 's "Book of the Gods and Rites and the Ancient Calendar " (translated by Doris Heyden and Fernando Horcasitas in a 1971 edition by the Univ. of Oklahoma Press)
Hassig, Ross. Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control. Oklahoma, 1988. An examination of the Aztec Empire in terms of its own goals and objectives.
Karen, Ruth. Feathered Serpent: The Rise and Fall of the Aztecs. Four Winds, 1979. The origins of the civilization, brutal cultural organization, and military conquest by Spaniards.
Leó, Miguel. The Aztec Image of Self and Society. Ed. J. Jorge Klow de Alva. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1992.
Leon-Portilla, Miguel. Aztec Image of Self and Society. Utah, 1992. "An Introduction to Nahua Culture" (subtitle).
Leon-Portilla, Miguel, ed. The Broken Spears: An Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico. Beacon, 1962. Translations of a selection of indigenous accounts of the conquest.
Leon-Portilla, Miguel's "Aztec Thought and Culture " (Univ. Oklahoma Press, 1963; several printings), A classic analysis of the Aztec mind, a translation of the author's 1956 Spanish original: "La FilosofíaNahuatl " (UNAM, Mexico City).
Matos Moctezuma, Eduardo. Aztecs. Rizzoli, 1989. Draws on both archaeological and ethnohistorical evidence.The Mighty Aztecs. National Geographic, 1981. Illustrated overview of their short-lived glories.
Moctezuma, Eduardo Matos. The Great Temple of the Aztecs. Trans. Doris Heyden. New York: Thames and Hudson, Ltd., 1988.
Soustelle, Jacques's "La Vida Cotidiana de los Aztecas en Vísperas de la Conquista " (1956, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico City, many printings), a translation from the original French work published in 1955.
Tezozomoc, Fernando Alvarado 's "Crónica Mexicayotl " (1975, UNAM, Mexico City).
Townsend, Richard F., The Aztecs (1992)
Weaver, Muriel Porter. The Aztecs, Maya, and Their Predecessors Archeology of Mesoamerica. New York: Seminar Press, 1972.
Vegetarianism
50 Reasons to be a Vegetarian
There are many reasons to abstain from real animal products. Here are fifty of the best reasons I can think of, all abstracted from The Lumen Book. -- G.J. Caton
Environmental / Ecological
Conservation of Fossil Fuel. It takes 78 calories of fossil fuel to produce 1 calorie of beef protein; 35 calories for 1 calorie of pork; 22 calories for 1 calorie of poultry; but just 1 calorie of fossil fuel for 1 calorie of soybeans. By eating plant foods instead of animal foods, I help conserve our non-renewable sources of energy.
Water Conservation. It takes 3 to 15 times are much water to produce animal protein as it does plant protein. As a vegetarian I contribute to water conservation.
Efficient Use of Grains. It takes up to 16 pounds of soybeans and grains to produce 1 pound of beef and between 3 and 6 pounds to produce 1 pound of pork, turkey and egg. By eating grain foods directly, I make the food supply more efficient and that contributes to the environment.
Soil Conservation. When grains and legumes are used more efficiently, our precious topsoil is automatically made more efficient in its use. We use less agricultural resources to provide for the same number of people.
Saving Our Forests. Tropical forests in Brazil and other tropic regions are destroyed daily, in part, to create more acreage to raise livestock. By not supporting the meat industry I directly reduce the demand to pillage these irreplaceable treasures of nature. Since the forest land "filters" our air supply and contains botanical sources for new medicines, this destruction is in many ways irreversible.
Aesthetics. Decaying animal parts, whether in a freezer case or served in public restaurants can never be as aestheically pleasing to the senses as the same foods made from wholesome vegetable sources. Only habit can allow one not to perceive this; a change in diet makes this self-evident.
Personal Health
No Deficiencies. There is no nutrient necessary for optimal human functioning which cannot be obtained from plant food.
High Fat Plus Cholesterol. Animal foods are higher in fat than most plant foods, particularly saturated fats. They contain cholesterol; plants do not.
Carbohydrate Deficient. Meat is deficient in carbohydrates, particularly the starches, which are so essential to proper health.
Vitamin Deficient. Except for the B-complex, meat is largely deficient in vitamins.
Agricultural Chemicals. Being higher on the food chain, animal foods contain fat higher concentration of agricultural chemicals than plant foods, including pesticides, herbicides, etc.
Exposure to Livestock Drugs. There are 20,000 different drugs, including sterols, antibiotics, growth hormones, and other veterinary pharmaceuticals that are given to livestock animals. I consume these drugs when I consume animal foods. The dangers therein, particularly in secondary consumption of antibiotics, have been well documented.
Pathogenic Micro-Organisms. There are a host of bacteria and viruses, some quite dangerous, that are common to animals. When I eat meat, I eat the organisms present in the meat. Micro-organisms are present in plant foods, too, but ther number and potential danger to human health is by no means comparable. This is because animals are so close to us both anatomically and physiologically.
Worms and Other Parasites. Also common to animals. The same argument applies here as that for Pathogenic Micro-Organisms.
Shelf-Life Differential. Plant foods "last" longer than animal foods. Try this experiment: leave out a head of lettuce and a pound of hamburger for one full day. Which one will make you sick?
Organoleptic Indications of Pathogens. Plant foods tend to give tell-tale signs of "going bad" much sooner than animal foods. Did you ever hear of somebody getting sick from "bad broccoli"?
Heart Disease. Meat-eating increases the risk of heart disease, the No. 1 killer in the U.S. The correlation is an epidemiological fact.
Cancer Prevention. Of all the natural cancer prevention substances found: Vitamin C, B-17, hydroquinones, beta-carotene, NDGA -- none has been found to be animal-derived. Yet most meats, when cooked, produce an array of benzenes and other carcinogenic compounds. Cancer is infinitely easier to prevent than to cure. Soybeans, for one, contain protease inhibitor, a powerful anti-cancer compound. You won't find it in useful quantities in animal food.
Disease Inducing. The correlation between meat consumption and a wide range of degenerative diseases is well-founded and includes...
Osteoporosis. Strong correlation.
Kidney Stones and Gallstones. Strong correlation.
Diabetes. Strong correlation.
Senile Dementia. Meat-eaters are up to three times as likely to suffer from dementia in old age; in addition, there's a strong correlation with multiple sclerosis.
Arthritis. Strong correlation.
Gum Disease. Compelling correlation.
Acne. Aggravated by animal foods.
Obesity. Vegetarians tend to be thinner than meat-eaters, and studies contain it. Obesity is considered by many doctors to be a disease in itself.
Intestinal Toxemia. The condition of the intestinal flora is critical to overall health. Animal products putrefy in the colon.
Transit Time. Wholesome food travels quickly through the "G.I. tract," leaving little time to spoil and incite disease in the body. Animal products uniformly have longer transit times.
Fiber Deficient. Fiber absorbs unwanted, excess fats; cleans the intestines; provides bulk and aids in peristalsis. Plant food is high in fiber content; meat, poultry and dairy products have none.
Body Wastes. Food from animals contain their waste, including adrenaline, uric and lactic acid, etc. Before adding ketchup, the biggest contributors to the "flavor profile" of a hamburger are the leftover blood and urine.
Excess Protein. The average American eats 400% of the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for protein. This causes excess nitrogen in the blood that creates a host of long-term health problems.
Longevity. To increase one's risk of getting degenerative disease means decreasing one's chance to live a naturally-long, healthy life. Huzas and other peoples with large centenarian populations maintain lifestyles that require little or no meat.
Well-Being. I just feel better since "giving up" meat and becoming a vegetarian.
Personal Finances
Health Care Cost. Being healthier from a vegetarian diet means spending less on health care.
Food Costs. Vegetarian food tends to cost less than meat-based items.
Ethics
Love of Animals. I love animals myself. I have no desire to kill them or cause them harm, just as I have no desire to have someone kill or harm me.
Stance Against Factory Farming. I cannot make a statement about the inhumanity of factory farming if I, myself, eat animals.
Respect for Sentient Life. I show gratitude to my Creator by eating as low on the food chain as possible.
"Economic Vote." I support the meat industry and the way they operate when I purchase and use their products. I do not wish to do this.
Small Sacrifice. The sacrifice I make is nothing compared to the poor animal's.
Spirituality
God-Given Diet. Our hands, teeth, feet, intestinal tract... even our body chemistry is that of an herbivore. As it states in Genesis: "Behold I have given you every fruit of every seed... and to you it shall be for meat."
Reciprocity. As you sow, so shall you reap. If I partake of the slaughter of animals, I will have to repay my contribution to that act.
"Protecting the Temple." "Whatever affects the body has a corresponding effect on the mind and soul." (E.G. White)
I Believe in Non-Violence. There is nothing non-violent about the senseless slaughter of animals, when more nutritious protein foods are available in their stead.
World Peace. There can never be peace among men while men are declaring war on other highly developed life forms. This, too, is the Law of Return, and I prefer to contribute to World Peace.
Clear Conscience. I know I'm doing right. I feel good inside about my decision to remain "meatless."
Example. To live in this way is to project the underlying spiritual values to those around me.
Easy Substitutes. There is now a vegetable-based substitute for every meat product imaginable, which brings us to...
The Whole Earth Vegetarian Catalogue!
There are many reasons to abstain from real animal products. Here are fifty of the best reasons I can think of, all abstracted from The Lumen Book. -- G.J. Caton
Environmental / Ecological
Conservation of Fossil Fuel. It takes 78 calories of fossil fuel to produce 1 calorie of beef protein; 35 calories for 1 calorie of pork; 22 calories for 1 calorie of poultry; but just 1 calorie of fossil fuel for 1 calorie of soybeans. By eating plant foods instead of animal foods, I help conserve our non-renewable sources of energy.
Water Conservation. It takes 3 to 15 times are much water to produce animal protein as it does plant protein. As a vegetarian I contribute to water conservation.
Efficient Use of Grains. It takes up to 16 pounds of soybeans and grains to produce 1 pound of beef and between 3 and 6 pounds to produce 1 pound of pork, turkey and egg. By eating grain foods directly, I make the food supply more efficient and that contributes to the environment.
Soil Conservation. When grains and legumes are used more efficiently, our precious topsoil is automatically made more efficient in its use. We use less agricultural resources to provide for the same number of people.
Saving Our Forests. Tropical forests in Brazil and other tropic regions are destroyed daily, in part, to create more acreage to raise livestock. By not supporting the meat industry I directly reduce the demand to pillage these irreplaceable treasures of nature. Since the forest land "filters" our air supply and contains botanical sources for new medicines, this destruction is in many ways irreversible.
Aesthetics. Decaying animal parts, whether in a freezer case or served in public restaurants can never be as aestheically pleasing to the senses as the same foods made from wholesome vegetable sources. Only habit can allow one not to perceive this; a change in diet makes this self-evident.
Personal Health
No Deficiencies. There is no nutrient necessary for optimal human functioning which cannot be obtained from plant food.
High Fat Plus Cholesterol. Animal foods are higher in fat than most plant foods, particularly saturated fats. They contain cholesterol; plants do not.
Carbohydrate Deficient. Meat is deficient in carbohydrates, particularly the starches, which are so essential to proper health.
Vitamin Deficient. Except for the B-complex, meat is largely deficient in vitamins.
Agricultural Chemicals. Being higher on the food chain, animal foods contain fat higher concentration of agricultural chemicals than plant foods, including pesticides, herbicides, etc.
Exposure to Livestock Drugs. There are 20,000 different drugs, including sterols, antibiotics, growth hormones, and other veterinary pharmaceuticals that are given to livestock animals. I consume these drugs when I consume animal foods. The dangers therein, particularly in secondary consumption of antibiotics, have been well documented.
Pathogenic Micro-Organisms. There are a host of bacteria and viruses, some quite dangerous, that are common to animals. When I eat meat, I eat the organisms present in the meat. Micro-organisms are present in plant foods, too, but ther number and potential danger to human health is by no means comparable. This is because animals are so close to us both anatomically and physiologically.
Worms and Other Parasites. Also common to animals. The same argument applies here as that for Pathogenic Micro-Organisms.
Shelf-Life Differential. Plant foods "last" longer than animal foods. Try this experiment: leave out a head of lettuce and a pound of hamburger for one full day. Which one will make you sick?
Organoleptic Indications of Pathogens. Plant foods tend to give tell-tale signs of "going bad" much sooner than animal foods. Did you ever hear of somebody getting sick from "bad broccoli"?
Heart Disease. Meat-eating increases the risk of heart disease, the No. 1 killer in the U.S. The correlation is an epidemiological fact.
Cancer Prevention. Of all the natural cancer prevention substances found: Vitamin C, B-17, hydroquinones, beta-carotene, NDGA -- none has been found to be animal-derived. Yet most meats, when cooked, produce an array of benzenes and other carcinogenic compounds. Cancer is infinitely easier to prevent than to cure. Soybeans, for one, contain protease inhibitor, a powerful anti-cancer compound. You won't find it in useful quantities in animal food.
Disease Inducing. The correlation between meat consumption and a wide range of degenerative diseases is well-founded and includes...
Osteoporosis. Strong correlation.
Kidney Stones and Gallstones. Strong correlation.
Diabetes. Strong correlation.
Senile Dementia. Meat-eaters are up to three times as likely to suffer from dementia in old age; in addition, there's a strong correlation with multiple sclerosis.
Arthritis. Strong correlation.
Gum Disease. Compelling correlation.
Acne. Aggravated by animal foods.
Obesity. Vegetarians tend to be thinner than meat-eaters, and studies contain it. Obesity is considered by many doctors to be a disease in itself.
Intestinal Toxemia. The condition of the intestinal flora is critical to overall health. Animal products putrefy in the colon.
Transit Time. Wholesome food travels quickly through the "G.I. tract," leaving little time to spoil and incite disease in the body. Animal products uniformly have longer transit times.
Fiber Deficient. Fiber absorbs unwanted, excess fats; cleans the intestines; provides bulk and aids in peristalsis. Plant food is high in fiber content; meat, poultry and dairy products have none.
Body Wastes. Food from animals contain their waste, including adrenaline, uric and lactic acid, etc. Before adding ketchup, the biggest contributors to the "flavor profile" of a hamburger are the leftover blood and urine.
Excess Protein. The average American eats 400% of the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for protein. This causes excess nitrogen in the blood that creates a host of long-term health problems.
Longevity. To increase one's risk of getting degenerative disease means decreasing one's chance to live a naturally-long, healthy life. Huzas and other peoples with large centenarian populations maintain lifestyles that require little or no meat.
Well-Being. I just feel better since "giving up" meat and becoming a vegetarian.
Personal Finances
Health Care Cost. Being healthier from a vegetarian diet means spending less on health care.
Food Costs. Vegetarian food tends to cost less than meat-based items.
Ethics
Love of Animals. I love animals myself. I have no desire to kill them or cause them harm, just as I have no desire to have someone kill or harm me.
Stance Against Factory Farming. I cannot make a statement about the inhumanity of factory farming if I, myself, eat animals.
Respect for Sentient Life. I show gratitude to my Creator by eating as low on the food chain as possible.
"Economic Vote." I support the meat industry and the way they operate when I purchase and use their products. I do not wish to do this.
Small Sacrifice. The sacrifice I make is nothing compared to the poor animal's.
Spirituality
God-Given Diet. Our hands, teeth, feet, intestinal tract... even our body chemistry is that of an herbivore. As it states in Genesis: "Behold I have given you every fruit of every seed... and to you it shall be for meat."
Reciprocity. As you sow, so shall you reap. If I partake of the slaughter of animals, I will have to repay my contribution to that act.
"Protecting the Temple." "Whatever affects the body has a corresponding effect on the mind and soul." (E.G. White)
I Believe in Non-Violence. There is nothing non-violent about the senseless slaughter of animals, when more nutritious protein foods are available in their stead.
World Peace. There can never be peace among men while men are declaring war on other highly developed life forms. This, too, is the Law of Return, and I prefer to contribute to World Peace.
Clear Conscience. I know I'm doing right. I feel good inside about my decision to remain "meatless."
Example. To live in this way is to project the underlying spiritual values to those around me.
Easy Substitutes. There is now a vegetable-based substitute for every meat product imaginable, which brings us to...
The Whole Earth Vegetarian Catalogue!
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