It's a boy !!

Dear friends,
We have been blessed with a baby boy on 09 July ...:-)
I'll return with a bang once I'm a little settled into my new routine with the baby. Thanks for all your wishes

Don't sweat the small Stuff !!

Hello Friends !! Today I'm sharing a few points from the book " Don't sweat the small stuff ... and it's all small stuff" by Richard Carlson.

It's a very nice , small book that can be read to gain everyday inspirational thoughts. I had read it a long time ago in the year 2002 . Recently I came across a few points i had jotted from the book. Amazingly these points are applicable in both personal as well as professional fronts.

Do let me know what you feel about these and if possible try to read the entire book. Nice read this one...

1. Develop your compassion

Its the recognition that other people's problems, their pain and frustrations are every bit as real as our own- often far worse.

It involves two things- intention and action.

Intention means you remember to open your heart to others; you expand what and who matters from yourself to other people. Action is simply ' What you do about it'

2. Let others have the glory

Ironically, when you surrender your need to hog the glory, the attention you used to need from other people is replaced by a quite inner confidence that is derived from letting others have it.

3. Imagine that everyone is enlightened except you

The people you meet are all here to teach you something .Your job is to try to determine what the people in your life are trying to teach you.

You'll find that if you do this, you'll be far less annoyed, bothered and frustrated by the actions and imperfections of other people. If you get in this habit of thought , you'll be glad , you did.

Change from " Why are they doing this?" to " What are they trying to teach me ?"

4. Let others be "right" most of the time

Ask yourself " Do I want to be 'right' or do I want to be ' Happy' ?"

Many times the two are mutually exclusive !!

Being right, defending our positions, takes an enormous amount of mental energy and often alienates us from the people in our lives.

The truth is , all of us hate to be corrected ( :-) and now the best one.... )

5. Ask yourself the question " Will This matter a year from Now ?"

Whether it be an argument with your spouse ,child or boss, a mistake , a lost opportunity, a lost wallet, a work-related rejection or a sprained ankle, chances are , a year from now you aren't going to care.

It will just be one more irrelevant detail in your life.

So don't Sweat about it !!

Quotation for the day

Two quotations for today. Think about them...

"When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before." -- Jacob August Riis

" The whole of life is like a a Boomerang !

What you give to others will come back to you,

Someday, somehow, with acute precision !! - Anonymous

Annie's Song

Today I'm sharing the lyrics of a beautiful Song called "Annie's song"- by John Denver. Just listening to this song takes me to another world...with forests, beaches, mountains ..wow.. beautiful lyrics..beautiful music... John Denver..U rock !!

I dedicate this song as its a namesake too to my good friend (and senior in my erstwhile organisation) Annie ,who has been a friend, philosopher and guide indeed !! I really don't know how I would have survived my tenure without your valuable inputs and priceless suggestions Ann :-))

I tried to add the video to this song but was unsuccessful..it'll upload it again sometime during the day .You may like to see a beautiful version on you tube with this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C21G2OkHEYo&feature=related

ENSOI !!

ANNIE'S SONG (John Denver)

You fill up me senses like a night in a forest
Like the mountains in springtime, like a walk in the rain
Like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean
You fill up my senses come fill me again.

Come let me love you, let me give my life to you
Let me drown in your laughter, let me die in your arms
Let me lay down beside you, let me always be with you
Come let me love you, come love me again.

INSTRUMENTAL VERSE

...Let me give my life to you
Come let me love you, come love me again.

You fill up my senses like a night in a forest
Like the mountains in springtime, like a walk in the rain
Like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean
You fill up my senses, come fill me again.

Life and lessons

I was just reading this article where it says you need to de-clutter your wardrobe every six months and religiously remove all the clothes you haven't touched in the last six months.

This rule applies to me now-a-days. Earlier things were very different. My clothes would spill out of my cupboard everytime I opened it and I would still be clueless about what to wear for work everyday. My clothes would keep piling as I keep things thinking I'll use it sometime in the future and that " sometime" didn't come for years!! So.. I had old clothes which I stacked thinking I'll wear them once I'm back to shape and then there were clothes which were out of fashion but I would think maybe the trend would turn around and I'd be able to wear them again. Then again I kept clothes for sentimental reasons too !!!So my wardrobe was ever expanding... with no space to add more clothes and yet it just kept growing!!

One day about a year back ,as I was driving to work and as i passed a bridge ,I saw these homeless people staying on the bridge, in make shift houses of plastic sheets used as roof over four bamboo poles. A lady was drying her meagre belonging which had probably drenched in rain water , when it poured the previous night. She hardly had more than two extra garments to dry ,other than what she was wearing in person.It was absolutely necessary for her to dry the spare clothes that very day so that she could have a change of clothes if it rained again. It dawned on me then that its better that someone utilize my unused clothes pilling in my cupboard than me waiting to use them. So the very next day I took out four of my old garments which were in a perfectly good condition but I refused to wear them any more as I had worn them very often and was now " bored" of them. I handed them over to the lady on the bridge while on way to work. That evening I saw the lady sitting outside her plastic sheet house wearing my clothes. There.. someone had used immediately what was lying in my cupboard for months..untouched !!! A warm feeling overtook me that day something that can only be experienced and not described in words.It felt good to be able to help someone in need. Why hadn't I thought of it earlier?

Since then I make it a point to de-clutter my wardrobe every six months and fill some needy person's life with something as basic as clothes.

The best part is that the law of nature works in perfect harmony. Everytime I donate old clothes somehow new ones always find space to occupy the vacancy in my cupboard either as a gift from someone or my own shopping. :-)) ( and my wardrobe has since become much more organized )

Maybe we need to apply this principle in our emotional lives too. Too many people carry old unwanted emotions with them as a burden. Unwanted and unnecessary Memories ... De-clutter your emotional cupboards friends..its only then that new , happier emotions will automatically find a way to reach your emotional wardrobes...even before you realise it !!! De-clutter your cupboards and your lives !!!

Learning from others

There's a lot to learn from our own family and friends. Infact its best to observe and imbibe the good qualities we observe around ourselves, in our family and friends. Then be it someone who manages their time well , or a colleague who's always well turned out ,be it any occasion .. or just some quality we admire in a person which we would like to incorporate too. Let's start by learning something new from our friends and family. Here's a list of what I have learnt ... it keeps growing now as I find something new to learn from every individual I meet..

1. One of my ex-bosses' used to always address people by their first names... be it the liftman or the peon... or the Officer from another department. I saw that this imbibed a sense of "being acknowledged as a person first" in the person being addressed to. I have since started calling the newspaper delivery boy by his first name instead of the usual " Bhaiyya" . Calling him " Ashish" gives him the unique identity that he is an individual first and not just any newspaper boy. So now-a-days whenever at the end of the month he comes to collect the bill , he rewards me with a sweet smile.

There's this lady who comes to pick up the garbage from our apartment. Calling out to her with a smile while handing out the garbage doesnt cost me anything extra but to her it gives a sense of purpose to her otherwise uninspiring (and supposed to be menial by some ) job.

2. My Mom teaches her maid's little 8 year old son everyday for an hour irrespective of how busy she is in her daily routine.( I think a classic example of " Charity begins at home" ) This makes me wonder what is my contribution to society with much free time on my hand. And then again all this time I have been wondering how best to help someone in need but have never been actually able to do it with mom's dedication. Need to work on this at some level.

3. My mom-in-law is impeccable in her sense of dressing. I would describe her taste as "classy". I'm still learning by observing her and trust me I have a longgg way to go. Also she is too good at planning for any event to take place at home..be it some lunch or dinner party or just a casual tea and snacks for some guests to come. She conjures up the tastiest food stuff in a jiffy like a magician... I'm still in the learning phase here again...

4. My friend from my engineering hostel days, Shilpa Vaidya taught me a very important lesson in relationships.Whenever we would have a tiff or a heated argument on something we didnt agree to ( which we did very often as we were both very head strong girls), I would think of never speaking to her again ( how typical !!) , but there again at tea time she would come barging inside my room , tea cup in hand and a wide smile. " Care to come to the mess for some tea??" .. all previous heartburns forgotten while I still mulled over the same. And then as we sipped tea together and laughed out loud at some hilarious event of the day.. i realised that it takes a lot to Forgive and forget and take at first step towards reaching a truce...and she always beat me to it :-)) Hope you read this someday Shilpa ..

These are just 4 random listings .. If I continue all in one post it'll become an epic in itself.. More learnings in next post in this label...Many people to list and many new things to learn too..

Poets and Poetry

I owe all my love for poems to my english school teacher Ms Jacintha who taught us to see and understand much beyond the written word. This is a gratitude remembrance poem to you dear Ma'am !!

I chose this poem Leisure by W.H . Davies first amongst many others as it is a personal favorite and applies so well even in today's times.We all are so absorbed in our everyday activities that we ignore the beauty around us... and truly so " What is this life if full of care.. we have no time to stand and stare" .Gone are the days when as little children we would spend whole afternoons just doing nothing... when was the last time we appreciated even that little flower bud that might bloom anyday , growing in our apartment compound... or have you recently noticed the foliage that can be seen outside the office window ?? Are we all just existing or do we need to start living life...Now !! So next time you are travelling to work or sitting on your desk just spare to minutes to observe and appreciate the beauty around you (and not just " see" it with blank eyes!!) Lets start adding meaning to everday life... today :-)

W. H. Davies

Leisure

WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?—

No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

And now a little something about the poet himself ( source: www.englishverse.com)

William Henry Davies (1871-1940)

William Henry Davies was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales, the son of a publican. After an apprenticeship as a picture-frame maker and a series of labouring jobs, he travelled to America, first to New York and then to the Klondike.

He returned to England after having lost a foot jumping a train in Canada, where he led a penurious life in London lodging houses and as a pedlar in the country. He married in 1923, Emma, who was much younger than he. His first poems were published when he was 34.

Most of his poetry is on the subject of nature or life on the road and exhibits a natural simple, earthy style. He also wrote two novels and autobiographical works, his best known being Autobiography of a Super-Tramp.

Keep the change

" Keep the change "- by Nirupama Subramanian who is a journalist and a first time author is a "fun read" book . It will keep you in splits throughout , specially if you have south Indian friends ( Tam Brahm) since then you can relate to what goes in a typical south Indian household. The language is simple and the mind set of a typical middle class Indian household where a prospective bride resides is well chalked out.Damayanthi - who is the main character of this novel ( she hates the name her parents have given her !!) comes to Mumbai from Chennai( where she works in a non descript account firm) to escape the marriage proposals coming her way. She is a " good girl" is every sense... will she be able to survive the competitive corporate world of Mumbai and her size zero Delhite room mate after her dramatic make over ?? Read the book on a lazy sunday afternoon when its raining with a cup of tea to find out more.....

Happy Father's Day !!

Happy Fathers day to all !! Aren't all girls their papa's daughters ..no matter what ?? I love my dad so much and sometimes i think no matter what... children can't repay back everything that their parents have done for them..EVER !!!!!

So here's me wishing my dad a very very Happy father's day and to me he is the best dad in the whole wide world. Hey...have you wished ur dad today ?? If not just pick up the phone and talk to him today and see how lovely it feels to talk to ur dad... God could not be everywhere ..hence he gave us parents !!!

First showers

Dear Friends, Its raining in Mumbai..yes the rain gods have finally listened to our prayers...Rains..don't they just inspire you..it makes me poetic and romantic...the saundhi saundhi khusboo of matti ....the amazing cup of tea and garam garam bhajiyas to go with it.....wow...wow...

Doesn't nature display its best colours during monsoons ??

Rim Jhim gire sawan sulag sulag jaye mann....need to catch my hot cuppa of tea..what about you ??