Hard Times

A man was selling oranges in the middle of a road. He was illiterate, so he never read newspapers. He put some signs along the road and spent the whole day praising the flavor of his wares.

Everyone bought from him and the man thrived. With the money he placed more signs on the road and began to sell more fruit. Business was growing fast when one day his son, who was educated and had studied in a big city asked him Father, don’t you know that the world is going through very hard times? The economy of the country is in an awful state!

Worried by this, the man reduced the number of signs and began to sell fruit of inferior quality because it was cheaper. Sales slumped immediately.

“My son is right,” he thought. “Times are very hard.” 

Adapted from Paulo Coelho

In HIS time

There are people, (in the long list of the ones I know) who do not believe that ‘there is a time for everything’. When talking to them, they always say that ‘the awakening call, that ‘chance event’ which gives permission to act, comes but too late’.

I believe that we are a part of God’s story. We have to wait for his plot to unfold in our times. It is not our story. We lose faith and blame the entire universe for not receiving our chance.

Let me share with you a small incident.

During my Stanes High School days (9th 10th), I used to frequently go to my classmate Srikumar’s house, because he was my close friend. He stayed at Coonoor Silk Farm quarters close to school (His father was the Senior Scientist at Silk Farm). He had Mulberries’ and Green Apple trees in his garden. We used to go there for desert after lunch and sometimes miss school till evening. :-). At the Silk farm, they produced silk from cocoons after some special process.

This is where I first saw the metamorphic cycle of a butterfly. Amazing creation!

One weekend we decided to speedup the process for the butterflies to be born from some cocoons, so we decided to warm the cocoons close to a small bulb. A butterfly finally emerged from one of the cocoons, but its wings were still stuck together and it died soon afterwards. This made me understand that there is no point in forcing the great story of God, but to be patient and wait for the right time, following confidently the rhythm that God has chosen for our lives.

Devoting your talents to a cause that's larger than yourself

"See how the mass of men worry themselves into nameless graves, while here and there a great unselfish soul forgets himself into immortality." - Emerson.

Dr.Shanthi

As a small girl, brought up close to the southern tip of India, Shanthi had natured a dream of helping needy children. During the time I got to know her as my sister-in-law, she expressed her dream to me. Me being me did not take her seriously, I thought when money and fame comes her way, being a doctor, all these dreams would fade away. But on 27th Dec, 2008 Dr.Shanthi fulfilled her dreams by establishing a TRUST called ADVESA meaning ‘Unconditional Love’, along with her are two other like minded friends of hers to support her 

To begin with ADVESA has started a library for under privileged children in Mathur area, a panchayat situated 15 km from Chennai cityi. The library is called ‘Alphonsa library’ in respect for the sisters of the Hospice Jeevodhya, who had come forward to provide a room to start the library. The library was inaugurated on March 2nd, 2008 with the first day membership of 40 children. In the following days and months, number of children visiting the library kept increasing, proving wrong the social myth about reading interests of children. Alphonsa Library is growing slowly along with its members.

The trust also plans to conduct Social Awareness programs, provide Medical Aid, scholarships etc. 

I wish ADVESA and the trustees GOD’s blessings in abundance. 

I hope we as humans are inspired by such great examples and give back to world in our small ways.

Happy Birthday Baby

Next time a sunrise steals your breath
or a meadow of flowers leaves you speechless,
remain that way.
Say nothing and listen as heaven whispers,
“Do you like it? I did it just for you.” 

There is more to your life than you ever thought.
There is more to your story than what you have read.

Through the Lord,
may this coming year
be even more than
you ever dreamed it could be!

Life without limbs, Life without limits

Watch this amazing man and be inspired

Nick Vujicic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo_24_qTNac

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY5Uo1PfZuY

Start of the Ice Age in UAE

Snow fell heavily on the mountains of Ras Al Khaimah on Friday night due to the cold spell that has engulfed the country.

My daughters and I were out that evening and they were hugging on to me for warmth. This reminded me of a story which I told them. The story of the ‘porcupines in the Ice Age’. During the ice age many animals died because of the cold. Seeing this situation, the porcupines decided to group together, so they wrapped up well and protected one another. But they hurt one another with their thorns, and so then they decided to stay apart from one another. They started to freeze to death again. So they had to make a choice: either they vanished from the face of the earth or they accepted their neighbor’s thorns. They wisely decided to stay together again. They learned to live with the small wounds that a very close relationship could cause, because the most important thing was the warmth given by the other. And in the end they survived. http://www.gulf-news.com/nation/General/10278477.html

Thalassery- Past meets present

Thalassery like Rome, is built upon seven hills. From time immemorial, visitors from far away lands have been captivated by its beauty and charm. Arabs, Chinese, Portuguese and British came here and many of them made thalassery their home. This cultural confluence gave Thalassery its ever present cosmopolitan character. The first settlement of East India Company , Thalassery is well known as the cradle of the three C's- Cricket, Circus and Cakes. The first news paper of the state was published from Thalassery. The first novel in Malayalam was written from Thalassery. The first dictionary of the language was compiled from thalassey by great Herman Gundert. In Thalassery, where river joins the sea History merges into the present.

Slumdog Millionaire

Yesterday I watched the movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. It was a brilliant and entertaining movie. Great performace by the kids.

Everyday at traffic lights, beaming bazaars and urban slums in India, scores of urchins like ‘Jamal Malik’ cross our eyes. But hardly ever does one try to get behind the life of a slumdog or his aspirations. But Danny Boyle, the director did just that.

Watching SlumD, I remembered the saying – NO DREAM IS TOO BIG. 

Always count your blessings

A lion came across a group of cats having a chat. “I’m going to devour them,” he thought.

But then an odd feeling of calm came over him. And he decided to sit down with them and pay attention to what they were saying.

Good God! - said one of the cats, without noticing the lion’s presence.  We have prayed all afternoon! We asked for the skies to rain mice on us!

And so far nothing has happened! said another.  I wonder if the Lord really exists.

The skies remained mute. And the cats lost their faith.

The lion rose and went on his way, thinking: “funny how things are. I was going to kill those animals, but God stopped me. And even so, they stopped believing in divine grace. They were so worried about what was missing that they did not even notice the protection they were given.”

Right Place Right Time

How important it is to be in the right place at the right time