A wise man's letter to his son

This one was forwarded to me and I am glad that it was :-)

Following is a letter to his son from a renowned Hong Kong TV broadcaster/Child Psychologist. The words are actually applicable to all of us, young or old, children or parents! This applies to daughters too. All parents can use this in their teachings to their children.

Dear son,

I am writing this to you because of 3 reasons

1. Life, fortune and mishaps are unpredictable; nobody knows how long he lives. Some words are better said early.

2. I am your father, and if I don't tell you these, no one else will.

3. What is written is my own personal bitter experiences that perhaps could save you a lot of unnecessary heartaches.

Remember the following as you go through life

1. Do not bear grudge towards those who are not good to you. No one has the responsibility of treating you well, except your mother and I. To those who are good to you, you have to treasure it and be thankful, and ALSO you have to be cautious, because, everyone has a motive for every move. When a person is good to you, it does not mean he really likes you. You have to be careful, don't hastily regard him as a real friend.

2. No one is indispensable, nothing in the world that you must possess. Once you understand this idea, it would be easier for you to go through life when people around you don't want you anymore, or when you lose what/who you love most.

3. Life is short. When you waste your life today, tomorrow you would find that life is leaving you. The earlier you treasure your life, the better you enjoy life.

4. Love is but a transient feeling, and this feeling would fade with time and with one's mood. If your so called loved one leaves you, be patient, time will wash away your aches and sadness. Don't over exaggerate the beauty and sweetness of love, and don't over exaggerate the sadness of falling out of love.

5. A lot of successful people did not receive a good education, that does not mean that you can be successful by not studying hard! Whatever knowledge you gain is your weapon in life. One can go from rags to riches, but one has to start from some rags!

6. I do not expect you to financially support me when I am old, neither would I financially support your whole life. My responsibility as a supporter ends when you are grown up. After that, you decide whether you want to travel in a public transport or in your limousine, whether rich or poor.

7. You honor your words, but don't expect others to be so. You can be good to people, but don't expect people to be good to you. If you don't understand this, you would end up with unnecessary troubles.

8. I have bought lotteries for umpteen years, but I never strike any prize. That shows if you want to be rich, you have to work hard! There is no free lunch!

9. No matter how much time I have with you, let's treasure the time we have together. We do not know if we would meet again in our next life.

Love,
Your Dad.

चांद का क्या कसूर अगर रात बेवफा निकली
कुछ पल ठहरी फिर चल निकली
उनसे क्या कहे वो तो सच्चे थे
शायद हमारी तकदीर ही हमसे खफा निकली

While browsing Nehru Planetarium's site, I came across an interesting article about Astrology. No, I didn't mean Astronomy. I mean Astrology. Here it is.

Private Down Under - James Patterson

A prominent businessman's son staggers into a bash - both his eyes gouged out - and breathes his last. A broker (need I say wealthy?) has mysteriously disappeared and his wife is afraid to go the cops because she isn't sure what her husband does is completely legal. A famous rock star is worried that his manager is doing all he can to bump him off so he can join the club of musicians who died when they were 27. The wife of a wealthy citizen is found brutally murdered a few distance away from her home - stabbed in the back multiple times and fake money stuffed in her body. Turns out she is the first victim of a serial killer hell bent on murdering rich housewives. The PI agency seems to have its hands full after opening their branch in Australia.

And I wondered how the author is going to tie all the threads for 4 criminal cases in one novel. But he manages to pull off this seemingly impossible feat spectacularly. The only thing is that by the time I turned the last page, I felt as if I have had too much of crime and blood and gore.

Of course, Patterson is not to be blamed for that. It's just that I have been reading too many of these crime thrillers lately. Time to take a break!

Can't make sense of all the budget jargon? Check out the following 2 links to figure out what has changed as far as the Mango Man is concerned:

Unfair to mutual fund investors

Tax breaks make the middle class smile

A friend forwarded following lines from The Guru Granth Sahib:

तेरी किस्मतका लिखा तुझसे कोई ले नही सकता
अगर उसकी रहमत हो तो तुझे वो भी मिल जायेगा
जो तेरा हो नही सकता

The first message read as follows:

The budget is a ray of hope to the housewife burdened by rising prices. It places utmost importance to women empowerment and girls' education - PM Narendra Modi

Ummm....shouldn't it read 'It places utmost importance on' or 'It gives utmost importance to' instead? I am also not sure why a housewife (BTW, the politically correct word for this is 'homemaker' now!) has been singled out as the victim of inflation. We are all in the same boat.....that's rocking from side to side and leaking at the same time :-( I am yet to read all the budget related analysis so wonder what reference to "girls' education" is.

The second message came soon thereafter:

Budget14: Relief to taxpayer Slab raised to 2.5 lac For Senior citizens - 3 lac Saving limit increased to 1.5 lac Home loan interest benefit raised to 2 lac

Succinctly put! But a little punctuation would have gone a long way in making the message more legible. For a moment there are I thought that the tax slab has been raised to 2.5 lac for senior citizens and wondered what has changed.

All said and done though, it felt good to receive messages from Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of India. I just hope they will keep at it now that the budget has been delivered.