Dust Thou art, and into dust Thou shalt return

"Dust Thou art, and into dust Thou shalt return"
- Genesis 3:19

As TRIBUTES continue to POUR in for late STEVE JOBS... this one paticular image...

BREAKS MY HEART and makes me REFLECT...! No amount of WEALTH can decide HOW LONG YOU LIVE...
Reminds me... that WE ALL BELONG to the ALMIGHTY...
and HE decides when YOU enter HIS KINGDOM...
Considering any of us could be the next to be summoned... We all need to consistently train ourselves towards 'GOOD' THOUGHTS and ACTIONS...
A GOOD life is not only about AVOIDING the EVIL... its also about DOING GOOD deeds and FRUITFUL work...

I'm positive about late STEVE JOBS contribution to the latter...
His bright mind in the areas of TECHNOLOGY and BUSINESS MANAGEMENT is evident...

Our prayers... that he receives a SOUND JUDGEMENT at the PEARLY GATES...!
A great amount of 'HEART-FELT SYMPATHY' to his FAMILY, FRIENDS and RELATIVES...!

(Feb 24th 1955 - Oct 5th 2011)
Rest In Peace.

The Return of the Red Aloos (Red Potatoes)

For those who enjoyed reading 'Red Aloos'... this is a continuation of the funny yet inspiring story of my sister's cooking...

Well after that point of time (when my sister prepared her 1st dish 'red aloos' for us)... we (my brother and I) thought that in the coming months our sister would continue preparing dishes for us that she learnt at the cookery class in school... How unfortunate were we... ? :-( ...For the remaining part of that year in the 8th grade, she hardly cooked anything for us... But we never lost HOPE.... hehehe... we continued pestering her to cook for us, even in the vacations that followed that particular academic year...
The following year in 9th grade.... my sister never had 'cookery' class as part of her extra-curricular activities. So she thought, we would stop pestering her to cook for us, but as annoying as most siblings are to each other during childhood, we bothered her every single day... in the hope that we she we cook for us again... and yes.. one fine day, she once again gave into our demands... and decided to cook for us...So what would it be this time...? ...Both of us eagerly waited for her decision... and guess what... she decided to make for us...

'Red ALOOS'... ONCE AGAIN... at first we grumbled... but we were later ok with it... and this time it turned out much tastier than the last time...

Ok now.. to cut a long story short... in the next few years... as she passed junior and degree college... she rarely cooked for us... except for 'The Return of the RED ALOOS'...
We even made a joke out of this. Whenever we had visitors...my brother and I sarcastically asked her... "Why don't you prepare RED ALOOS for them?"). Though she felt quite embarassed... she forgived us too quickly...
Later on as she took up employment, she did pamper the family with a lot of snacks (that she usually brough from out)... but seldom cooked for us... To be fair to her... she did learn few dishes, desserts and how to make India's most consumed and popular beverage 'TEA'... hehehe...!
From that time till few years back in 2008... she limited her learning in 'cooking'... and always relied on mum continuing to be the main cook for the preparation of our household meals...

THE TWIST in the story...

She's married today, with a 3 yr-old kid and has migrated abroad... In the last 3 years while hearing the conversations betweem Mum and her on international calls... I noticed a substantial amount of these conversations (believe me or not) were about cooking Indian dishes out there. No matter what notes she took down from my mum in these conversations, I was prejudiced to think that she'd always be a poor cook... since she had never cooked much back here in India... But recently she visited us (in India) with her kid and stayed with us for over a month. Other than never being able to gulp the fact that my sister is a full-fledged parent with matured responsibilities... another astonishing fact was, my sister had made huge improvements in the area of 'COOKING'. She genuinely helped Mum in the kitchen, made new dishes and cooked readily for the house. This experience makes me believe that one day.. yes one day... if not better than My Mum's cooking... she might be at par with her...!

Also hoping that the next time we are together... she is willing to prepare her 'once-upon-a-time' speciality... 'RED ALOOS'..!

ALL the BEST to this lovely lass... My Sister...!

REFLECTION
- I believe EVERYBODY matures with TIME.

- Secondly when an Individual is put in a situation of discomfort/difficulty, it is at that time where you will most probably see the best of him or her.

- Lastly, don't give up on anybody. Everyone is unique. Bring out the best in one another.

Red Aloos (Red Potatoes)

I hope I've not got anybody smacking their lips in anticipation of some recipe that I'm going to post. Sorry folks... no recipe... This article is a funny yet inspiring narrration of how my sister has grown from being just a 'Red Aloo' cook...

I'm gonna take you back to memory lane to more than a decade and a half ago... when we were all schooling... We are three siblings, my sister being the eldest, followed by my brother and then me. My sister finished her schooling in a convent. In a particular year of her schooling when she was in the 8th grade, as part of the extra-curricular activities for the students... they had a class on 'COOKERY'... where they were taught the basic art or practice of cooking. One of the main activity of that class was creating and mantaining a journal of recipes (vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes), and also trying those recipes at home. Initially that year, for my brother and me the most exciting part of going through our sister's journal was seeing the attractive images of various dishes (recipes) stuck all through the journal and allowing ourselves to greedily salivate by looking at those images.

(A quick snippet of our childhood sibling relationship was, as many times as we fought, we united pretty quick because of our 'Maandavli Baadsah' (peacemaker)... our 'Mother'. )

As few months passed by in the cookery class, my brother and I ALWAYS HOPED that our sister would start cooking few of the many dishes she learnt in the 'cookery' class. (An average Indian girl is expected to learn cooking at a pretty early age... not for my sister. Though she was not lazy... she always had the comfort of our mothers hands to do all the cooking...)

On one particular holiday my brother and I decided that we had it... we approached our sister very peacefully and pressurised her to making any dish for us that she learnt in the cookery class... She succumbed to our pressure, my Mum agreed too.. and there you go... she was in the kitchen... trying her first dish for us... Yipee...! So what was she going to cook for us?... She quickly went through all the pages of her journal atleast thrice... while my brother and me got hold of our empty plates much before she started to cook... (lol...) She finally decided it was going to be..... 'RED ALOOS' (A spicy veg dish where the main ingredient is 'potatoes' with red-chilly powder, a tangy touch of lime and corriander leaves)

The RESULTS : It turned out too good for a first-timer... and as expected my brother and I finished most of it... keeping hardly any for our mum, dad or the cook (my sister).... hehehe...!

A learning I would like to add - Though she messed up the entire kitchen, my sister for the 1st time, experienced a sense of achievement and encouragement that she cooked for us, and that we all enjoyed.

~

For those who enjoyed reading this story... its doesnt end here... stay tuned... the funny, ironic, yet inspiring story continues in...

'The Return of the RED ALOOS' :-)

~

The Paradox of OUR LIVES...

~

The Paradox of our time in history is that we have TALLER buildings, but SHORTER tempers; WIDER freeways but NARROWER viewpoints; we spend MORE but have LESS; we buy MORE but we enjoy it LESS.

We have BIGGER houses and SMALLER families; MORE conveniences but LESS time; we have MORE degrees but LESS sense; MORE knowledge, but LESS judgement; MORE experts, but MORE problems; MORE medicine, but LESS wellness.

We have MULTIPLIED our posessions, but REDUCED our values. We talk TOO MUCH, we love to SELDOM, and hate TOO OFTEN. We learned HOW TO MAKE a living, BUT NOT A life; have ADDED years to life, NOT life to years; we have HIGHER incomes, but LOWER morals; we have become LONG on quantity, but SHORT on quality.

We have been all the way TO THE MOON and BACK, but have TROUBLE CROSSING the STREET to meet the new neighbour. We HAVE CONQUERED outer space, BUT NOT inner space; we have CLEANED up the air but POLLUTED the soul; we HAVE SPLIT the atom BUT NOT our prejudice.

These are the times of TALL men, and SHORT character; STEEP profits and SHALLOW relationships. These are the times of world PEACE , but domestic WARFARE; MORE leisure, BUT LESS fun; MORE kinds of food but LESSER nutrition.

These are the days of TWO incomes, but MORE divorce; of FANCIER houses but BROKEN homes.

It is a time when THERES IS MUCH in the show window and NOTHING in the stockroom; a time when a well-wisher can bring this message to you and you choose either to SPREAD this message and MAKE a DIFFERENCE or be PASSIVE and KEEP this to YOURSELF.

~

Original Source : Unknown
Original Author : Unknown
Contributed By : Dr. A T Kaji

Selecting the CEO

A successful business man was growing old and knew it was time to choose a successor to take over the business. Instead of choosing one of his directors or his children, he decided to do something different. He called all the young executives in his company together.

He said, "It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO. I have decided to choose one of you." The young executives were shocked, but the boss continued. "I am going to give each one of you a SEED today - one very special SEED. I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from the seed I have given you. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO."

One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story. She helped him get a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed. Everyday, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing. By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn't have a plant and he felt like a failure. Six months went by - still nothing in Jim's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Jim didn't say anything to his colleagues, however he just kept watering and fertilizing the soil - he so wanted the seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company brought their plants to the CEO for inspection. Jim told his wife that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But she asked him to be HONEST about what happened. Jim felt sick to his stomach, it was going to be the most embarrassing moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right.

He took his empty pot to the board room. When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other executives. They were beautiful - in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor and many of his colleagues laughed, a few felt sorry for him! When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young executives. Jim just tried to hide in the back. "My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown," said the CEO. "Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!" All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered the Financial Director to bring him to the front. Jim was terrified. He thought, "The CEO knows I'm a failure! maybe he will have me fired!"

When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his seed - Jim told him the story. The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and then announced to the young executives, "Behold your next Chief Executive Officer! His name is Jim!" Jim couldn't believe it. Jim couldn't even grow his seed. "How could he be the new CEO?" the others said.

Then the CEO said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead - it was not possible for them to grow. All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Jim was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Chief Executive Officer!"

*****

~ If you plant honesty, you will reap trust
~ If you plant goodness, you will reap friends
~ If you plant humility, you will reap greatness
~ If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentment
~ If you plant consideration, you will reap perspective
~ If you plant hard work, you will reap success
~ If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation
~ If you plant faith in God , you will reap a harvest

So, be careful what you plant now; it will determine what you will reap later..
"Whatever You Give To Life, Life Gives You Back"
*****

Original Source : Unknown
Original Author : Unknown
Contributed By : Sandra Fernandes

Juggling 5 Balls

~
(Inspiring 30 second speech by Bryan Dyson - Former CEO of COCA COLA)

Imagine 'LIFE' as a game in which you are JUGGLING 5 BALLS in the air. They are WORK, FAMILY, HEALTH, FRIENDS and SPIRIT and you're keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand WORK is a RUBBER ball. If your drop it, it will bounce back. But the other 4 Balls - FAMILY, HEALTH, FRIENDS and SPIRIT are made of GLASS...

If you drop one of these; they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even SHATTERED. They will NEVER Be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.
~

ATTITUDE Application

ATTITUDE Application

1 - I will NEVER GIVE UP so long as I know I am RIGHT.
2 - I will BELIEVE that all things will work out for me if I hang on UNTIL the END.
3 - I will be COURAGEOUS and UNDISMAYED in the face of ODDS.
4 - I will NOT PERMIT anyone to intimidate me or deter me from my GOALS.
5 - I will FIGHT to overcome all physical handicaps and SETBACKS.
6 - I wil try AGAIN and AGAIN and yet again to accomplish what I DESIRE.
7 - I will NEVER SURRENDER to discouragement or despair no matter what seeming OBSTACLES may confront me.

* Original Source : Unknown