I watched a local football match in a school playing ground. 
As I sat down, I asked one of the boys what the score was !

With a smile, he replied; "They are leading us 3-0" !

And I said, REALLY!!

I have to say you don't look discouraged.

"Discouraged?" the boy asked with a puzzled look ...!

Why should I be discouraged when the referee has not blown the final whistle ?

I have confidence in the team and the managers; We shall definitely overcome !

Truly, the match ended 5-4 in favor of the boy's team !

He waved at me gently, with a beautiful smile as he left; I was amazed, mouth wide open; 
Such confidence; Such beautiful faith !

As I got back home that night, his question kept coming back to me:
"Why should I be discouraged when the referee has not blown the final whistle?"

Life is like a game.

Why should you be discouraged when The Almighty God is your manager? 
Why should you be discouraged, when there's still life ?
Why should you be discouraged when your final whistle has not sounded ? 

The truth is that many people blow the final whistle themselves !

But as long as there is life, nothing is impossible and it is never too late for you.

BE ENCOURAGED! DON'T GIVE UP !

Remove extra lemon from water...

I still remember the day I was preparing fresh lime water for the first time... I ended up adding almost five times the amount of lemon than needed. It was a disaster. I had to correct it anyhow. 

How I wish I could remove some lemon juice from water to make it taste perfect again! But alas! 

Some things can never be undone. Some things can never be changed. There was no way that I know of, to remove the extra lime. So what was the solution then? The only way to correct this was to add four more glasses of water and dilute the lemon juice to make five glasses of fresh lime water.

This made me think.. Sometimes we cannot undo some things that have gone wrong in life. Some wrong decisions, wrong choices, wrong investments, wrong actions, wrong associations, wrong words or wrong doings can never be undone. 

So what is the solution then? 

When you cannot correct what is wrong, do not waste more time over it. It is like attempting to remove lemon from water. 

Instead, get busy in adding so many right things in your life that the wrong seems insignificant.

We all have a negative side to ourselves. We may not be able to remove or correct all our negativities. But we can definitely continue adding positive thoughts, positive reading and positive people in our lives and dilute the negativity. We all have to deal with some easy people and some difficult people in our lives. 

Do not waste time trying to change the difficult people. You will drain all your emotional energy in vain. Instead spend more time with the pleasant positive happy people and the difficult people will not affect you any more.

Everything in your life will never be perfect. Do not waste too much time correcting what is wrong. 

Get busy doing the right things and make it a great week ahead...

I was waiting in line for a ride at the airport in Dubai. When a cab pulled up, the first thing I noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for me.

He handed me a laminated card and said: 'I'm Abdul, your driver. While I'm loading your bags in the trunk I'd like you to read my mission statement.'

Taken aback, I read the card. It said: Abdul's Mission Statement:
To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.

This blew me away. Especially when I noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!

As he slid behind the wheel, Abdul said, 'Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf.'

I said jokingly, 'No, I'd prefer a soft drink.'

Abdul smiled and said, 'No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, lassi, water and orange juice.'

Almost stuttering, I said, 'I'll take a Lassi.'

Handing me my drink, Abdul said, 'If you'd like something to read, I have The NST , Star and Sun Today.'

As they were pulling away, Abdul handed me another laminated card, 'These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you'd like to listen to the radio.'

And as if that weren't enough, Abdul told me that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for me.

Then he advised me of the best route to my destination for that time of day. He also let me know that he'd be happy to chat and tell me about some of the sights or, if I preferred, to leave me with my own thoughts.

'Tell me, Abdul ,' I was amazed and asked him, 'have you always served customers like this?'

Abdul smiled into the rear view mirror. "No, not always. In fact, it's only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard about POWER OF CHOICE one day."

Power of choice is that you can be a duck or an eagle.

'If you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you'll rarely disappoint yourself. Stop complaining!'

'Don't be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.'

'That hit me. really hard' said Abdul.

'It is about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes, slowly ... a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more.'

'I take it that it has paid off for you,' I said.

'It sure has,' Abdul replied. 'My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I'll probably quadruple it. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on it.'

Abdul made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking like a duck and start soaring like an eagle.

Start becoming an eagle today ... one small step every week..next week... And next...And....

A great Thought..

"You don't die if you fall in water, you die only if you don't swim.

Thats the Real Meaning of Life.

Improve yourself and your skills in a different way.
Be an eagle. not a Duck.. and make it a great week ahead..

Once, Lord Indra got upset with the farmers. 

He announced, “There will be no rain for 12 years and farmers won't be able to produce crops.”

Farmers begged for clemency from Lord Indra, who then said, rain will be possible only if Lord Shiva plays his Damru, but he secretly requested Lord Shiva to disagree with the farmers’ request. 

When the farmers approached Lord Shiva, he said that he will play Damru after 12 years.

Disappointed farmers decided to wait till 12 years but one farmer was regularly digging, sowing seeds and putting manure in the soil. 

Other farmers were making fun of him. After 3 years, all farmers asked him, “Why are you wasting your time and energy inspite of knowing that rains will commence only after 12 years”.

He replied, “I know that crops won't grow but I'm following the process as a matter of "practice”. 

After 12 years, I will forget the process of growing crops hence I must keep repeating the process so that I'm fit to produce the crop when the rain commences.”

Goddess Parvati heard this argument and told Lord Shiva, “You may also lose the practice of playing the Damru after 12 years”. 

Lord Shiva in his anxiety just tried to play the Damru and hearing the sound of Damru, rain commenced and the farmer who was regularly working in the field got his crop emerged immediately and others were disappointed.

Practice makes man perfect and is the essence of quality survival. 

…make it a great week ahead

Long  time  ago there  lived  a  great king  and  two beggars  who always  stood  at the  gate  of  his  palace  everyday.

As  the  king  rode by  everyday,  the 1st beggar would say 'blessed  is  he whom  the  king helps' while  the 2nd beggar would say 'blessed is he whom God helps'.

The  king  always felt  pleased  to hear  the  praise  of the 1st  beggar.

One  evening  the king  decided  to reward  the  1st beggar  for  all  the praise;  he  ordered his  baker  to  bake a  cake  and  wrapped gold inside  the  cake.

The  next day  as  he  rode  by, he gave  the  cake  to the  1st beggar  as he  hailed  him  as usual.

The 1st beggar  who  was  in  dire need  of  cash  sold  the  cake  to  the 2nd beggar at  a cheap  price.

When the 2nd beggar cut open the cake he saw the gold, sold them and became a wealthy man.

He did not return back to the kings gate the next day.

As  the  king  rode out  of  his  palace the  next day,  he saw  the  1st beggar  still  begging for money  and stopped  to  ask him  if  he  ate  the cake  he  gave  him.

The  1st beggar replied  and  said  no  sir,  I  sold  it  to my  friend  who  was  here  with  me yesterday;  I  have not  seen  him today.

The  king shook his head highly disappointed and confessed silently to himself that

"Indeed Blessed is he Who God helps"

Our  God  is  the  all knowing  God, HE has  not  forgotten you. God  always does His work just  in  time.

Be  blessed  and  Trust  God  even  when  you  don't understand  His WILL. Someday your blessings shall be in abundance.

Make it a great week ahead!!

Constraint: A real constraint or a trigger to explore new possibilities?

The journey of life unfolds sequence of events at times imposing constraints in various aspects of our lives. Sometimes physical, sometimes mental. Sometimes financial and sometimes interpersonal…

And they appear like Tsunami, without much warning. Therefore we cannot plan to tackle them with a business continuity plan or a well-thought-out personal backup plan. At best we can chose not to get overwhelmed, display courage and agility instead to endure them gracefully. And who knows? An impulsive reaction to an imposed constraint may throw up interesting outcomes, and may be, sometime, pleasant surprises!

Don’t believe? Read this story…

I was in my early 40’s and was beginning to get conscious about my stamina, form and shape. So I started jogging every morning. That did some trick, but I was not content. My daughter was getting into her teens and was spending too much time secretly reading some books. I was not too worried about that part, till I noticed, she was completely ignoring her fitness. So I tried to get her out of bed and cajoled her to play badminton with me. Soon another responsibility came up when I as the Father assumed the role of a coach, which required me to bowl regularly to improve hand-eye coordination of my son, who had shown symptoms of dyslexia early in his childhood. This is not all, there were few more activities too. You can imagine… all this added up; it was too much of responsibility for my right shoulder to shoulder! I ignored early warning signals till it showed signs of rebellion. I felt acute pain in my right shoulder. I tried to ease it a bit by stopping some easy ones first, like, stopping playing tabla, stopping playing table tennis and so on. Didn’t help much. I stopped jogging, thinking reduced oscillation and vibration induced at the neck shoulder joint would bring some relief. Situation didn’t improve still. Before considering stopping playing badminton with my daughter and bowling to my son I consulted a doctor in Manipal Hospital, Bangalore. He looked at the X-ray report, advised complete prohibition of activities involving right shoulder, be on pain killer, begin physiotherapy and so on. From a state of hyperactivity to a state of grinding halt in a span of less than a week; it felt like an imposed imprisonment!

Midway through physiotherapy routine one fine morning I paused while brushing my teeth. “This is an activity I can try in my left hand!” – I thought, and switched to brushing using my left hand. It felt awkward for a moment no doubt, but not awful. I felt a sense of achievement when the tooth brush could be guided by the left hand to brush all around my jaw. I saw a new ray of hope. Same morning I bowled, rather threw, few balls at my son. Curiosity grew. In office I tried playing table tennis with a close colleague using my left hand. The forehand serve while serving using left hand made the table tennis ball land in the left hand corner of the table making it really difficult for the opponent who had a relatively weak back hand. I did not win a game, but created enough trouble for this colleague of mine. I felt encouraged. In the evening I continued my pursuit and played badminton with my daughter. Next day morning I began brushing with my left hand. Switched from underarm bowling to round-arm bowling. When I pushed a bit I discovered the well-rested, but not so well tested left arm bowling faster than the right hand! Continuing my curiosity I surprised few more colleagues at work that day while playing table tennis using my left hand. The journey continued. I started loving and concentrating on my left hand more than I cared about my right hand any time before. The pain in right hand was not bothering me that much anymore. By the time I found my right arm back to normal I had literally discovered a backup for doing most of my day-to-day activities using left hand!

Friends, post this self-discovery I began using my left hand for many activities as a conscious choice giving rest to my right hand. Gradually I discovered, certain activities that have potential to stretch both hands equally, like gardening, swimming, and moving heavier things around, felt easier. I discovered and put into active use a significant part of my body that I was not very conscious about and never thought could be so important!

"At times we obsess and drive ourselves to a point of suffocation or helplessness over what we lost temporarily or what we never had, instead of exploring the possibility and making best use of what we already have!"

So friends, this was an anecdote from my personal life... do you have a similar one to share?

The Real Rich

Some incidents in life teach a lesson or two that remain etched in the mind forever.

April 1992, It was the last working day of my first year in college. I was studying Science where as my best friend from School was studying Commerce in the same college. We bumped into each other while picking up our bicycles at the cycle stand. It was indeed a pleasant surprise for both of us as our class timings were different and we hardly got to meet each other during the entire year. We decided to spend some time at the Juice store outside the college before heading home. We started discussing our plans for summer vacation over some refreshing watermelon juice. While I had nothing much planned other than going to my native place for few days, he had planned for getting inducted into his father's business of medicine wholesaling during the holiday time. He already had an assignment for the next day and asked me whether I could join him for few hours to go to a village some 100 kms away from our city.

We decided to meet at the bus stand a little before noon the next day (provided I got permission from my family). Since it was the first day of vacation, my mother agreed and we went ahead as per plan. My friend explained his first assignment was to recover an outstanding of few thousand rupees from a small medicine retailer in that village. My friend had planned every detail. We would reach the village by 3 pm, get the job done in 2 hrs and take the bus at 5:30 pm and get back home by 8:30 pm.

We reached before 3 pm and had little issues locating the address of that medicine store. To our surprise that store was closed while the other small shops in the surrounding area were open. To beat the summer heat, I ordered two soft drinks while my friend checked with few shop owners in that area. As he came back with a grumpy face, I could sense something was not right. He gulped down the entire bottle of cola in one sip and then told me that the medicine shop was shut for over a month. The owner had gathered a lot of debt and fled the village to escape from the lenders. Since we still had more than 2 hrs before we started our return journey, we decided go inside the village and get further clues on the whereabouts of the absconding person. Asking few locals, we could locate the shop owner's house but it was locked. The neighbors could not share any information that could be of further help.

Tired and dejected, we started walking towards the bus stop. After waiting for more than an hour, it was close to 6 pm but there was no sign of the bus. We got to know that the bus had broken down at the previous stop and could not be repaired that night. To our bad luck, that was the last bus for the day and there was no other option available. Since it was a remote village with no restaurants or lodgings, we stocked up on some biscuits and bananas and searched for a place to spend the night. We came across a big banyan tree in front of the village temple and that seemed like a good place to rest for the night. As we sat down under the tree, another middle aged man resting under the tree with his bullock looked at us curiously. He soon figured out that we were not the typical village folks and asked what brought us to the village. After hearing our ordeal, he invited us to his house to spend the night which we politely refused. He kept insisting saying it was not safe to spend the night in the open and finally we had to agree. During the 10 minute walk to his humble thatched mud house, he introduced himself as ".. Sahu" (I don't recall his first name).

As we entered his house, I could see there was no furniture other than two small rope cots and a torn mat on the floor. The kitchen was towards one end of the same room and his wife was already cooking something on wooden fire. Sahu switched on the rickety old table fan at the corner of the room to make ourselves comfortable . His two sons probably around 10 and 8 were playing outside the house. He introduced us to his family and said we would be their guest for the night. As his wife went back to preparing dinner, we engaged in a long conversation with Sahu starting with the medicine shop owner, his life as a farmer and many other challenges he faced in everyday life. Our conversation was interrupted when his wife signaled that dinner was ready.Dinner was simple roti and potato fry and the portion of potato in our plates was more generous than theirs. They also made sure we finished our dinner before they started eating. After dinner, when it was time to go to bed, Sahu insisted that we slept inside the house on the two rope cots and the family slept on the mat outside the house.

Next morning, when we woke up, Sahu had already kept a bucket of water for us to freshen up, and I could also smell tea. It did not take long to figure out that tea was not a regular routine and was specially made for us. As we were sipping on the freshly made tea, his sons were happily rolling a bicycle tire with a small wooden stick. Sahu reminded that the bus would arrive in 15 minutes. As we bid good bye to his wife and kids, we handed over the biscuits and bananas to his sons, the least we could do. The bus was on time, Sahu personally came to the bus stop and waited till we boarded the bus. I moved over to a window seat and looked outside the window to say good bye to Sahu for one last time. As the driver pressed on the gas, the black diesel smog spread behind the bus. By the time it cleared, Sahu was no more to be seen.

"What a waste of time ? My dad is going to be really upset" said my friend as we were settling down in our seats. 

I just smiled at him ,closed my eyes and thought about Sahu and his family. Despite living in such hardship, this man with a small pocket and big heart taught me an important lesson in life. 

"Real rich people are not those who have the most, but those who need the least. You don't need to have too much to give away a little"