Blind Faith!

A little girl was watching her mother prepare a fish for dinner. Her mother cut the head and tail off the fish and then placed it into a baking pan. The little girl asked her mother why she cut the head and tail off the fish. Her mother thought for a while and then said, "I've always done it that way - that's how babicka (Czech for grandma) did it."

Not satisfied with the answer, the little girl went to visit her grandma to find out why she cut the head and tail off the fish before baking it.

Grandma thought for a while and replied, "I don't know. My mother always did it that way."

So the little girl and the grandma went to visit great grandma to find ask if she knew the answer.

Great grandma thought for a while and said, “Because my baking pan was too small to fit in the whole fish”

A - Z of Quotes

A—"Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it." Lou Holtz

B— "Believing in yourself is not for you; it's for every person who has touched your life in a significant way and for every person your life will touch the same way five minutes from now, or five centuries from now." Jaye Miller

C—”Change is as inexorable as time, yet nothing meets with more resistance." Benjamin Disraeli

D—"Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the action stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living." Anais Nin

E—"Enthusiasm releases the drive to carry you over obstacles and adds significance to all you do." Norman Vincent Peale

F—"Focused will is incredible. If you have a dream and you don't give up no matter what obstacles come up, then life's problems will fall away and you will get what you want. It happens. It works." Yanni

G—"Goals are like a map. They help us determine where we want to end up, and give us personal direction on which to focus our energy." Catherine Pulsifer

H—"Happiness depends upon ourselves." Aristotle

I—"Ideas won’t keep; something must be done about them." Alfred North Whitehead

J—”Joy is not in things; it is in us.”Richard Wagner

K—“Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it.” Samuel Johnson

L—"Laughter is a tranquilizer with no side effects." Arnold Glasow

M—"Motivation is like food for the brain. You cannot get enough in one sitting. It needs continual and regular top ups." Peter Davies

N—"Nature does nothing uselessly." Aristotle

O—"Opportunity dances with those who are ready on the dance floor." H. Jackson Brown Jr.

P—"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish." John Quincy Adams

Q—"Quality questions create a quality life. Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers." Anthony Robbins

R—"Results! Why, man I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won’t work." Thomas A. Edison

S—"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." Leonardo DaVinci

T—"Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend." Diogenes Laetius

U—"Use your unique abilities to shake the world." Wendy Hearn

V—"Victory belongs to the most persevering." Napoleon Bonaparte

W—"Wisdom is the daughter of experience." Leonardo da Vinci

X—"X-ray your life, are you where you want to be, if not set your goals, take action." Catherine Pulsifer

Y—"Youth teaches, age puts what we have learned into practice, teaching us wisdom." Catherine Pulsifer

Z—"Zone into your comfort zone, and, then zone into where you want to be. Be all that you can be." 

Compiled by Catherine Pulsifer

49 quotes on Gratitude

1. “At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” — Albert Schweitzer

2. “You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.” — G. K. Chesterton

3. “No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks”. — Unknown

4. “Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” — Marcel Proust

5. “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” — Epictetus

6. “You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life. And you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law: the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you.” — Sarah Ban Breathnach

7. “We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” — Thornton Wilder

8. “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” — Albert Einstein

9. “Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” — William Arthur Ward

10. “Take full account of the excellencies which you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.” — Marcus Aurelius

11. “Real life isn’t always going to be perfect or go our way, but the recurring acknowledgement of what is working in our lives can help us not only to survive but surmount our difficulties.” — Sarah Ban Breathnach

12. “We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.” — Cynthia Ozick

13. “Can you see the holiness in those things you take for granted–a paved road or a washing machine? If you concentrate on finding what is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.” — Rabbi Harold Kushner

14. “We can be thankful to a friend for a few acres or a little money; and yet for the freedom and command of the whole earth, and for the great benefits of our being, our life, health, and reason, we look upon ourselves as under no obligation.” — Marcus Annaeus Seneca

15. “When we become more fully aware that our success is due in large measure to the loyalty, helpfulness, and encouragement we have received from others, our desire grows to pass on similar gifts. Gratitude spurs us on to prove ourselves worthy of what others have done for us. The spirit of gratitude is a powerful energizer.” — Wilferd A. Peterson

16. “Whatever our individual troubles and challenges may be, it’s important to pause every now and then to appreciate all that we have, on every level. We need to literally “count our blessings,” give thanks for them, allow ourselves to enjoy them, and relish the experience of prosperity we already have.” — Shakti Gawain

17. “Thou that has given so much to me,
Give one thing more–a grateful heart;
Not thankful when it pleaseth me,
As if thy blessings had spare days;
But such a heart, whose pulse may be
Thy praise.”

– George Herbert

18. “(Some people) have a wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder, and even ecstasy.” — A.H. Maslow

19. “If the only prayer you say in your life is thank you, that would suffice.” — Meister Eckhart

20. “Find the good and praise it.” — Alex Haley

21. “Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot.” — The Hausa of Nigeria

22. “What if you gave someone a gift, and they neglected to thank you for it-would you be likely to give them another? Life is the same way. In order to attract more of the blessings that life has to offer, you must truly appreciate what you already have.” — Ralph Marston

23. “Happiness is itself a kind of gratitude.” — Joseph Wood Krutch

24. “The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.” — Henry Miller

25. “There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy.” — Ralph H. Blum

26. “Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy — because we will always want to have something else or something more.” — Brother David Steindl-Rast

27. “Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.” — Denis Waitley

28. “As each day comes to us refreshed and anew, so does my gratitude renew itself daily. The breaking of the sun over the horizon is my grateful heart dawning upon a blessed world. ” — Adabella Radici

29. “For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

30. “Grace isn’t a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It’s a way to live. ” — Attributed to Jacqueline Winspear

31. “When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them.” — Chinese Proverb

32. “Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things.” — Horace

33. “But the value of gratitude does not consist solely in getting you more blessings in the future. Without gratitude you cannot long keep from dissatisfied thought regarding things as they are.” — Wallace Wattles

34. “Blessed are those that can give without remembering and receive without forgetting.” — Author Unknown

35. “If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.” — Rabbi Harold Kushner

36. “Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course. Everything originates in a will for the good, which is directed at you. Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude.” — Albert Schweitzer

37. “God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say “thank you?” — William A. Ward

38. “Gratitude is a vaccine, an antitoxin, and an antiseptic.” — John Henry Jowett

39. “Feeling grateful or appreciative of someone or something in your life actually attracts more of the things that you appreciate and value into your life.” — Christiane Northrup

40.”The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it.” — Richard Bach

41. “Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes of which all men have some.” — Charles Dickens

42. “Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend… when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present — love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure — the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience Heaven on earth.” –Sarah Ban Breathnach

43. “Whenever we are appreciative, we are filled with a sense of well-being and swept up by the feeling of joy.” — M.J. Ryan

44. “Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty.” –Doris Day

45. “Many people who order their lives rightly in all other ways are kept in poverty by their lack of gratitude.” — Wallace Wattles

46. “Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.” — Buddha

47. “Two kinds of gratitude: The sudden kind we feel for what we take; the larger kind we feel for what we give.” — Edwin Arlington Robinson

48. “There is a law of gratitude, and it is . . . the natural principle that action and reaction are always equal and in opposite directions. The grateful outreaching of your mind in thankful praise to supreme intelligence is a liberation or expenditure of force. It cannot fail to reach that to which it is addressed, and the reaction is an instantaneous movement toward you.” — Wally Wattles

49. “Gratitude should not be just a reaction to getting what you want, but an all-the-time gratitude, the kind where you notice the little things and where you constantly look for the good, even in unpleasant situations. Start bringing gratitude to your experiences, instead of waiting for a positive experience in order to feel grateful.” — Marelisa Fábrega

Relationships

Not everyone is healthy enough to have a front row seat in our lives.

There are some people in your life that need to be loved from a distance.

It's amazing what you can accomplish when you let go of, or at least minimize your time with, draining, negative, incompatible, not-going-anywhere relationships/friendships.

Observe the relationships around you. Pay attention.

Which ones lift and which ones lean?

Which ones encourage and which ones discourage?

Which ones are on a path of growth uphill and which ones are going downhill?

When you leave certain people do you feel better or feel worse?

Which ones always have drama or don't really understand, know or appreciate you?

The more you seek quality, respect, growth, peace of mind, love and truth around you...the easier it will become for you to decide who gets to sit in the front row and who should be moved to the balcony of Your Life.

"If you cannot change the people around you, CHANGE the people you are around."

Remember that the people we hang with will have an impact on both our lives and our income. And so we must be careful to choose the people we hang out with, as well as the information with which we feed our minds.

We should not share our dreams with negative people, Nor feed our dreams with negative thoughts.

It's your choice and your life..... It's up to you who and what you let in it......

Source: Unknown (received as a forward from a friend)

A little of something

There is always a little truth behind "mazak kar raha tha".......... a little emotion behind "mujhe koi farak nahi padta".......... a little pain behind "it's ok".......... a little need behind "mujhe akela chod do".......... sometimes, a deep thought behind "pata nahi".......... and most times, a lot of words behind silence!

Received this a forwarded sms.

Seven and a half learnings

As a student, taking up the CA course was not really a well deliberated decision for me. It would be incorrect to say that it was my dream to be a CA. In fact, far from it. The decision to take up this course was more by default than design. My elder cousin was doing this course and it was seen as a high Return on Investment course! Well, things went well and I did end up clearing the course in 2004. It has been 7 complete years (almost) since that eventful day.

The other day, in one of my many introspecting/reminiscing hours, I was wondering how life has shaped up since clearing CA. I could think of the following key learnings I have had over this period. Here they go...

1. Money is an important factor in life. To my mind, anyone who says money is not important is either lying or is ultra-rich. Financial security gives you a lot of space to do well in various aspects of life. In no way I am trying to imply that money is THE thing to chase, but having enough of it surely gives a lot of flexibility. Well, how much is enough is a totally different point altogether. Also, I feel earning a fair amount of money after being a CA has not been difficult. If you have a reasonable flair and grip on content, earning a lakh a month before you are 30 is not difficult at all.

2. Having a strong passion about something or having a genuine hobby is a very useful thing in keeping you happy in life. During phases when people and circumstances around you are being discomforting, your passion/hobby can see you through peacefully. It could be a sport, a game, an activity, travel, watching movies, reading books, music, anything. Anything that keeps your mind occupied and not idle.

3. Talking of mind, it is the most important part of our system I guess. Have a control on your mind, things are smooth. If not, it's havoc. Simple yet very difficult!

4. I have also learnt that our views and perceptions about things and people change over a period of time. What I believed 5 years back may not necessarily be my belief now. Things change. Change is the only constant. I know I know, it has been said a million times before.

5. We have a lot more time than what we think we have in life. There is enough time to live your life the way you want (assuming you know what you want!). We can afford to slow down, get off the rat race and relax sometimes. The important things will wait and the things that cannot wait may not be really important.

6. Love is an under-estimated concept. Even after thousand of movies and millions of exposures on it, it is still worth the time and efforts.

7. And finally, never say NEVER. I know I just did, but still!

These are my seven bits of wisdom for myself and for other takers. As always, for whatever it is worth :)

P.S. The final half bit of the learnings is that I am still so much a work in progress. Though I do not know how the finished product is supposed to be like, I am still closer to the start than finish.

Giving while living!

There was once a very rich man in town who had everything that any one would want. He lived a life of extravagance and had all the worldly pleasures that anyone could ever think of: expensive attire, jewels, delicacies served everyday, innumerable mansions, a fleet of cars and help at his every beck and call.

However, despite his lavish lifestyle, he neither gave a needy person a penny to comfort nor did he say a kind word to soothe a hurting soul. Thus, everyone ended up calling him a miser. This perturbed the rich man and so he decided to do something about it. He informed one of his friends to let the enire village know about his plan to donate his entire wealth to the village after his death. Despite knowing this, however, the villagers spoke behind his back and continued to make fun of him. This further aggrevated his depression. One evening, the same friend came to meet him and sensing his disturbed mood, he narrated to him the story of "The Cow & the Pig".

There was once upon a time a pig who was unhappy that despite all the perceived help and assistance provided by him, he got only rude comments in return whereas his friend - the Cow was loved by one and all. So, one day the pig out of sheer curiosity, the pig asked the cow as to why the world treated her so reverently and the pig so crudely. The pig said, "All you give them is milk, while here I am, who gives them a lot more – I give them my hair to make brushes, I give them my skin, I give them my entire body but still they treat me so badly."

The cow heard all his complaints very patiently and then after taking a few munches replied – "maybe if you try giving something, even a little something while you are alive, you may be treated differently. Think about it!"

Received this as a forward. Source unknown.

Do you own things or do they own you?

I read this statement recently and was quite struck by it: Things that you own now will end up owning you someday.

It is an extremely powerful thought. Loved it. It has been running inside my head since the moment I read it. Today, as I was having a conversation with my professor, he shared a beautiful story with me. It goes like this:

One fine day, while a sage is giving a discourse to his disciples, a man comes walking with his cow. The sage says to his disciples "See there, a man and a cow are coming together". The man hears this and gets a little agitated. He tells the sage "Hey old man, we are not coming together. You cannot put it like that." The sage replies "Oh yes, you are right. I am sorry. I will correct myself." He then tells his disciples "The cow is bringing the man". This makes the man very angry. He yells at the sage "Are you crazy? The cow is not bringing me. I am bringing it. I am controlling it. Do you understand?". To this, the sage replies beautifully saying "Sorry boy. The way I see it, the cow is bringing you alongwith it. If you leave the cow alone, it will still keep walking on its own, peacefully, without your help. But if it leaves you, can you do the same? So who's controlling whom?"

Awesome story. Hope you understand the gist and the message.

So, are you owning things or are they owning you?

Quote of the day

Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan's father quoted in Times of India:

People want a Bhagat Singh, but in a neighbour's house.

How apt and true! Pretty much the reason why the world at large have issues that needs to be sorted but have not been. We all believe somebody else should do the needful.

They say..

They say man must be obedient, to the extent of being submissive. They say man must be respectful of the society around him. They say man must give in to the expectations of the bigger want. They say man must seek advice and do things that the consensus feels is right. They say man has to educate himself to the norms of the world. They say man must dance to the audience. They say man must be more tolerant to every body else's soul than his own. They say man must think to suit those who cannot think. They say man must act for the convenience of those who has never acted.

Why don't they simple say man must cease to be man?

Desire

Desires, I have read in many spiritual books, are to be restrained to grow spiritually and reach closer to God. The other day, I read this question in a newspaper and quite liked it for its intrinsic simplicity: Isn't a desire of not having desires a desire too?

I will leave it to you to instrospect on this.

Ponder over this

It is amazing how we manage to miss the relevant points in life on so many occasions. Two small stories to drive the point home:

1. A couple went with their three children to the beach one day. The children were making castles and enjoying themselves. They saw an old lady in rags coming slowly towards them. She was bending down and picking up some things and putting them into her bag. As she came near the children, the parents shouted out to the kids to stay away from her.

The old lady smiled at them but they did not smile back.

A few days later they learnt that the old lady made it her life to pick up small pieces of glass from the beach sand so that children would not cut their feet.

2. One day a duck hunter went to the market to buy a bird retriever dog. To his amazement he found a dog that could walk on water! He immediately took it home.

He invited one of his friends to hunt the next day and took the dog along. When a flock of ducks came near, he took aim, fired and silently watched. The dog walked on water and retrieved the bird. He looked at his friend for a reaction but the friend remained silent.

He asked him, "Do you see anything unusual about my dog?". The friend replied. "Yes, your dog is unable to swim."

The stories have been extracted from the book "Living Enlightenment"

Me and the press!

Statutory Warning: This post has a lot of 'ME' written over it. I have given the 'rule of modesty' an exception in here! So, beware :)

As a part of my professional life, I have got opportunities of being quoted in the press, mostly financial media. Dealing with the press has always been tricky and exciting. Tricky, because a lot of times I said one thing and what was typed was technically same yet different in gist. Exciting, because I am being read by a lot and my name's on the news page! So here's a collation of some of my brushings with the press over the past:

As a part of my life with ING
My only interview - was with FE! The print edition had my photograph with the article. Cannot find it on the online version though.

Some of my views/quotes: Reuters, Yahoo Finance, Hindustan Times

As a part of my current professional start-up
FE 1, FE 2, Yahoo Finance 1, Yahoo Finance 2

I decided to put these things up on my blog for three reasons:

1. I wanted an 'artificial' feel-good.

2. I wanted to put these links up in my records and have it till they are available on the net.

3. It is a part of a 'deal' with someone.

P.S.: I know it is 'cheap' to put up these things up on a post! :) But then, I am human too :)) Happy reading

All shades of grey

Why are most of the relationships so complicated most of the times? None are ever in shades of white or black. They are all gray most times. Why does it take so much efforts to keep a relationship going? Why can it not be a simpler process? Does the presence of two different human beings make it such? Is it the expectations that kill the charm of a relationship? Or is it the lack of expectations beyond a point? Does all relationships go through swinging cycles of peaks and lulls? How difficult is to live without many relationships to entangle you? For that matter, do relationships not entangle you? If not always, most times? And those most times, don't they kill the joy of the few times it does not?

These are not mere questions. Mere musings.

Where has it disappeared?

I met one of my students in the train the other day. He was reading The white tiger. It is a rare sight these days to see someone as young as him (probably in his late teens) reading a book, leave aside reading something like the one he was. Reading, as important as it is, is increasingly becoming a rare habit that the younger lot is relishing. With television, games and internet to lure them, a relatively boring activity like reading is getting ignored. Yet, it is supremely important, perhaps more than anything else. A person who enjoys reading can spend an entire life-time doing just that and still adding value to herself as each day she goes through the pages of any good book. The school surely has a lot to do when it comes to inculcating reading as a habit. So does the parents and mentors of the child. Somewhere, the rat race for marks and grades is killing this beautiful aspect of child development. What is left are those rare ones who develop this habit somehow and sticks to it.

I love suggesting reading to anyone who appreciates suggestions! Be it my studens or friends. For, it is needed. In a typical batch where I teach, the response to my question about how many of them actively read books beyond their academic syllabi is not very encouraging. I am talking of an above average batch of students pursuing Chartered Accountancy. Sure, there are few who are avid readers. Yet there are many who are not. And the difference shows up sooner or later. Be it in the number of mistakes they make while they converse in English, be it the language they produce in their writings or even in the basic confidence level they exhibit while communicating. For all this to be good, grip over language and its usage is necessary. And I do not know of any better way of developing these skills than by reading a lot.

Reading gives you perspective. It makes you think about aspects you would not have thought of otherwise. It takes you to a world you would not have traveled otherwise. Books, by reading them, have the power to change you for the better. In thoughts and actions likewise.

I'm glad I love to read. I could survive happily by doing only that. One of the dream lives for me is having enough money to buy any book I wish to and spend all the time I have reading. Whatever grasp I have over language and writing is all due to the reading I could manage over the years. It defines a large part of what I am today.

Please do whatever you can to make a child take into reading. You never know how it transforms the child into an excellent human being and a person to look upto. It is probably the best gift we could give to a child and the generation that follows us.

Remember..

..death ends a life, not a relationship.

Rules of the Road

A forward I received and loved. These are few points we should all read very frequently and try to live by, me thinks.

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

10. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

11. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

12. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

13. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

14. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

15. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

16. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy dress. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

17. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

18. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

19. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'

20. Always choose life.

21. Forgive everyone everything.

22. What other people think of you is none of your business.

23. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

24. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

25. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

26. Believe in miracles.

27. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

28. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

29. Your children get only one childhood.

30. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

31. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

32. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's,we'd grab ours back.

33. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

34. The best is yet to come.

35. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

A couple of good thoughts

Calendars are for careful people, not passionate ones. - Chuck Sigars

At the end of the day, whether or not those people are comfortable with how you're living your life doesn't matter. What matters is whether you're comfortable with it. - Phillip C. McGraw

The Mantra!

Realize that true happiness lies within you. Waste no time and effort searching for peace and contentment and joy in the world outside. Remember that there is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. Reach out. Share. Smile. Hug. Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself! - Og Mandino

I sincerely wish and pray I could live the rest of my life with this mantra.

Quote of the day.. or may be year

I don't worry about terrorism. I was married for two years.