Trusting in God will not make the mountain smaller but will make climbing easier.
Do not ask God for a lighter load, ask for a stronger back.
-----
Memories play a confusing role.
They make you laugh when you remember the time you cried together.
But make you cry when you remember the time you laughed together.
-----
At the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.
-----
The Height you attend depends on the Depth of your roots.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Thought for today
Our life has no pause button.
Dreams have no expiry date.
Time takes no holiday.
Live life based on these principles. Enjoy life.
Dreams have no expiry date.
Time takes no holiday.
Live life based on these principles. Enjoy life.
Here’s a story I read recently but kept forgetting to post here:
One devotee asked his Guru about how he will be able to find a way to God when so many temptations litter the path of life. The Guru told him that he knew a bit of astrology and based on that the death of the devotee was sure to occur in next 5 days. He advised him to wind up his affairs as best as he could.
The devotee, though crushed at the thought that his end was near, nevertheless, went home and diligently started setting his life in order. He paid off his debts, got back his money from those who owed him, took care of inheritance and made peace with estranged friends and relatives.
After 5 days, finding himself still alive, he came to his Guru, astonished. The Guru, however, calmly asked him if he had been tempted by the many attractions of life. The disciple replied that it was hardly possible with death staring him in the face.
The Guru laughed and told him that that was the way to live life – as if death is staring you in the face – so as to always stay on the right path.
I did a double take when I heard one of the RJs wish her listeners “Happy Good Friday” last week. Just to be sure, I checked the net and found this piece - http://tony2cool.blogspot.com/2009/04/happy-good-friday.html
Of course, that doesn’t let that RJ off the hook. Maybe, RJ also stands for “Radio Jerk” :-)
Of course, that doesn’t let that RJ off the hook. Maybe, RJ also stands for “Radio Jerk” :-)
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
A police officer pulls over a speeding car. The officer says, I clocked you at 80 miles per hour, sir.”The driver says, “Gee, officer I had it on cruise control at 60, perhaps your radar gun needs calibrating.”
Not looking up from her knitting the wife says: “Now don’t be silly dear, you know that this car doesn’t have cruise control.”As the officer writes out the ticket, the driver looks over at his wife and growls, “Can’t you please keep your mouth shut for once?”
The wife smiles demurely and says, “You should be thankful your radar detector went off when it did.”As the officer makes out the second ticket for the illegal radar detector unit, the man glowers at his wife and says through clenched teeth, “Darn it, woman, can’t you keep your mouth shut?”
The officer frowns and says, “And I notice that you’re not wearing your seat belt, sir. That’s an automatic $75 fine.”The driver says, “Yeah, well, you see officer, I had it on, but took it off when you pulled me over so that I could get my license out of my back pocket.”
The wife says, “Now, dear, you know very well that you didn’t have your seat belt on. You never wear your seat belt when you’re driving.”
And as the police officer is writing out the third ticket the driver turns to his wife and barks, “WHY DON’T YOU PLEASE SHUT UP??”
The officer looks over at the woman and asks, “Does your husband always talk to you this way, Ma’am?”
'Only when he's been drinking.'
Not looking up from her knitting the wife says: “Now don’t be silly dear, you know that this car doesn’t have cruise control.”As the officer writes out the ticket, the driver looks over at his wife and growls, “Can’t you please keep your mouth shut for once?”
The wife smiles demurely and says, “You should be thankful your radar detector went off when it did.”As the officer makes out the second ticket for the illegal radar detector unit, the man glowers at his wife and says through clenched teeth, “Darn it, woman, can’t you keep your mouth shut?”
The officer frowns and says, “And I notice that you’re not wearing your seat belt, sir. That’s an automatic $75 fine.”The driver says, “Yeah, well, you see officer, I had it on, but took it off when you pulled me over so that I could get my license out of my back pocket.”
The wife says, “Now, dear, you know very well that you didn’t have your seat belt on. You never wear your seat belt when you’re driving.”
And as the police officer is writing out the third ticket the driver turns to his wife and barks, “WHY DON’T YOU PLEASE SHUT UP??”
The officer looks over at the woman and asks, “Does your husband always talk to you this way, Ma’am?”
'Only when he's been drinking.'
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
The morning after
With its winning bid being significantly higher than the second-highest bid submitted by L&T, I wonder if it's the Winner's Curse for Tech Mahindra.
Monday, April 13, 2009
False Impressions - by Jeffrey Archer
I didn’t know that Van Gogh had cut one of his ears off but then again I hadn’t even heard of him till I got out of the high school. I am sure my drawing teacher must have mentioned him in one of his lectures on the art history but drawing didn’t figure in my list of favorite subjects.
That’s why when I found Vincent Van Gogh’s “Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear” to be at the center of the plot of Jeffrey Archer’s “False Impressions”, my first impression was “Van Gogh did what?” :-)
Archer’ protagonist, Anna Petrescu, has everything a leading lady of any thriller usually has – beauty, brains, integrity and lot of guts. Oh, and she is a Romanian, for a change. Yep, the same country that Dracula came from. :-) After falling from grace at the Sotheby’s, Dr. Petrescu (a Ph. D. in art history!) is working for a banking concern, Fenston Finance which specializes in loaning out vast amounts to down-on-luck heirs of “old-money” families and later confiscating their priceless inherited paintings when they default on the loans. And the owners are later found dead with their throats ripped out.
When this happens thrice in a row, FBI agent Jack Delaney decides against it being a simple coincidence. The needle of suspicion firmly points at art collector Bryce Fenston and his right hand, a disgraced lawyer called Karl Leapman.
Victoria Wentworth is the latest client of Fenston Finance to end up dead and Bryce Fenston doesn’t lose much time in picking up “Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear” from her mansion. Dr. Petrescu gets fired for sending a report to Victoria suggesting that she could clear up her debt by selling the Self-Portrait to a well-known Japanese collector Mr. Nakamura.
As she is about to leave her office in the North Tower of the World Trade with a cardboard box full of her personal belongings, Al-Qaeda strikes – it’s 9/11! Though she survives the attack she realizes that she is living on borrowed time because she knows it all too well that Bryce Fenston would stop at nothing to secure the Self-Portrait. As she zooms across the cities - London, Bucharest, and Tokyo – she has to save the Van Gogh from falling into wrong hands and also save herself from Fenston’s hired gun, Olga Krantz.
I must say that despite the presence of all the elements that guarantee a slot on the top of the best-seller chart – a beauty with brains who can retain her head when all around her are losing theirs, priceless artwork, a bloodthirsty assassin, a hint of a romance between the damsel-in-distress and the knight in the shining armor and the twists and turns that are supposed to make you dizzy – I didn’t much like this one. I was especially disappointed in Archer’s final twist in the tail – it could have been guessed by kid-next-door.
If nothing else, the novel does live upto its name. Coming from my favorite author, it did give me a False Impression that it would be worth investing my time in! :-(
That’s why when I found Vincent Van Gogh’s “Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear” to be at the center of the plot of Jeffrey Archer’s “False Impressions”, my first impression was “Van Gogh did what?” :-)
Archer’ protagonist, Anna Petrescu, has everything a leading lady of any thriller usually has – beauty, brains, integrity and lot of guts. Oh, and she is a Romanian, for a change. Yep, the same country that Dracula came from. :-) After falling from grace at the Sotheby’s, Dr. Petrescu (a Ph. D. in art history!) is working for a banking concern, Fenston Finance which specializes in loaning out vast amounts to down-on-luck heirs of “old-money” families and later confiscating their priceless inherited paintings when they default on the loans. And the owners are later found dead with their throats ripped out.
When this happens thrice in a row, FBI agent Jack Delaney decides against it being a simple coincidence. The needle of suspicion firmly points at art collector Bryce Fenston and his right hand, a disgraced lawyer called Karl Leapman.
Victoria Wentworth is the latest client of Fenston Finance to end up dead and Bryce Fenston doesn’t lose much time in picking up “Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear” from her mansion. Dr. Petrescu gets fired for sending a report to Victoria suggesting that she could clear up her debt by selling the Self-Portrait to a well-known Japanese collector Mr. Nakamura.
As she is about to leave her office in the North Tower of the World Trade with a cardboard box full of her personal belongings, Al-Qaeda strikes – it’s 9/11! Though she survives the attack she realizes that she is living on borrowed time because she knows it all too well that Bryce Fenston would stop at nothing to secure the Self-Portrait. As she zooms across the cities - London, Bucharest, and Tokyo – she has to save the Van Gogh from falling into wrong hands and also save herself from Fenston’s hired gun, Olga Krantz.
I must say that despite the presence of all the elements that guarantee a slot on the top of the best-seller chart – a beauty with brains who can retain her head when all around her are losing theirs, priceless artwork, a bloodthirsty assassin, a hint of a romance between the damsel-in-distress and the knight in the shining armor and the twists and turns that are supposed to make you dizzy – I didn’t much like this one. I was especially disappointed in Archer’s final twist in the tail – it could have been guessed by kid-next-door.
If nothing else, the novel does live upto its name. Coming from my favorite author, it did give me a False Impression that it would be worth investing my time in! :-(
Star Trek – The Motion Picture
I am one of those who start drooling just on hearing the words “Space – the final frontier”. No wonder then, that I sat wide-eyed as the first ever Star Trek movie began playing. :-)
The plot is engaging enough. A gigantic cloud of unknown origin destroys three Klingon spaceships as it continues to close in on the 3rd rock from the sun – Earth. The only starship that can intercept and investigate it is the U.S.S. Enterprise. The only problem is that it’s undergoing a major overhaul. Engineer Scotty is asked to hurry up as Captain Decker prepares his crew for the mission ahead.
But much to the Captain’s chagrin, the Starship’s old captain, James T. Kirk - who now is an Admiral – shows up at the last minute to take command of her and the mission. What’s more, the Admiral hasn’t logged a single Star Hour in the three years that have passed since he last steered the ship where no man has gone before and she has changed a lot during this time.
When a transporter malfunction results in the death of the Science Officer, Captain Decker is asked to double up as one. Some of Kirk’s old crew – Sulu, Chekov, Scotty, Uhura and Dr. McCoy – are already on board. And when Spock flies in at the last minute from Vulcan claiming that he sensed a consciousness calling out to him from the strange cloud, good old Bones wonders if the Vulcan will put his pursuit of attaining “pure logic without any feelings” ahead of the Starship’s mission of stopping the intruder from reaching Earth.
Matters come to head when the Deltan on board the Enterprise disappears off the bridge only to be returned in the form of a machine probing the Starship on orders from Vger. The question is: will the Enterprise crew find out whoVger is and why he is searching for his Creator before he gobbles up Earth?
The film tends to rather ramble on in the beginning. I got especially worked up when Scotty and Kirk travel in the slowest vehicle on earth to inspect the fitting of the Starship in the dry dock. “Get going guys!” I must have said at least 5 times. The same goes when the Enterprise inspects the intruder. The graphics showing the inside of the mysterious cloud must have, no doubt, dazzled the audience in the 70s. But it doesn’t seem all that appealing in the 21st century.
The crew of the original TV series is fantastic as ever. Spock - as the cool competent Science Officer (a tad more logical and unemotional for my comfort!), the Doctor - ready to flare up at Spock’s pure logic and Kirk, as the good old captain, who though slightly out of his depth with the new gadgets, is still in command when it comes to dealing with the unknown.
The plot, sadly, fails to deliver on its promise. I said “huh?” when I realized who Vger must be moments before Kirk and company figures it out. And whosoever thought up the totally unimaginative title “Star Trek – The Motion Picture” should be sent to a penal colony many galaxies away. :-(
P.S. The Indians will recognize the Deltan on board – model Persis Khambata.
The plot is engaging enough. A gigantic cloud of unknown origin destroys three Klingon spaceships as it continues to close in on the 3rd rock from the sun – Earth. The only starship that can intercept and investigate it is the U.S.S. Enterprise. The only problem is that it’s undergoing a major overhaul. Engineer Scotty is asked to hurry up as Captain Decker prepares his crew for the mission ahead.
But much to the Captain’s chagrin, the Starship’s old captain, James T. Kirk - who now is an Admiral – shows up at the last minute to take command of her and the mission. What’s more, the Admiral hasn’t logged a single Star Hour in the three years that have passed since he last steered the ship where no man has gone before and she has changed a lot during this time.
When a transporter malfunction results in the death of the Science Officer, Captain Decker is asked to double up as one. Some of Kirk’s old crew – Sulu, Chekov, Scotty, Uhura and Dr. McCoy – are already on board. And when Spock flies in at the last minute from Vulcan claiming that he sensed a consciousness calling out to him from the strange cloud, good old Bones wonders if the Vulcan will put his pursuit of attaining “pure logic without any feelings” ahead of the Starship’s mission of stopping the intruder from reaching Earth.
Matters come to head when the Deltan on board the Enterprise disappears off the bridge only to be returned in the form of a machine probing the Starship on orders from Vger. The question is: will the Enterprise crew find out whoVger is and why he is searching for his Creator before he gobbles up Earth?
The film tends to rather ramble on in the beginning. I got especially worked up when Scotty and Kirk travel in the slowest vehicle on earth to inspect the fitting of the Starship in the dry dock. “Get going guys!” I must have said at least 5 times. The same goes when the Enterprise inspects the intruder. The graphics showing the inside of the mysterious cloud must have, no doubt, dazzled the audience in the 70s. But it doesn’t seem all that appealing in the 21st century.
The crew of the original TV series is fantastic as ever. Spock - as the cool competent Science Officer (a tad more logical and unemotional for my comfort!), the Doctor - ready to flare up at Spock’s pure logic and Kirk, as the good old captain, who though slightly out of his depth with the new gadgets, is still in command when it comes to dealing with the unknown.
The plot, sadly, fails to deliver on its promise. I said “huh?” when I realized who Vger must be moments before Kirk and company figures it out. And whosoever thought up the totally unimaginative title “Star Trek – The Motion Picture” should be sent to a penal colony many galaxies away. :-(
P.S. The Indians will recognize the Deltan on board – model Persis Khambata.
I guess the ones using the term "गुडिया" don't remember (or are choosing not to remember) what the late Mrs. Indira Gandhi did to those who once called her "गूंगी गुडिया" (a dumb doll). The BJP might be just 29 year old as a party but what's the age of their prime-ministerial candidate? Just having a web site and sending SMS to people doesn't make you a "cool dude", grandpa.
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