Old Golden Days

Many times I saw posting in FB or Blog or on Mails about “Good Old days”.  I am also not an exception to this.

Most of the time, it talk about one’s past years and everyone says that those days were Happier days / Golden Days compare to today life in all aspect.

In my case,

I thought during my school days, it was boring but when I went to college, it was a boring days and school days became Golden Days

When I joined Office, again boring days, College and school days became Happier Days.

When I left Cuddalore for Bombay, life of Cuddalore seems to be fantastic one and when I came to Delhi, life of Cuddalore and Bombay became my dream life.

When I parted from my school & college friends, today I want them to be again with me and “THINK” they are the only good friends.

Going forward, I am sure, I may think, Delhi is the best place – today friends are also best friends etc.

Why we are behaving like this and what make us not to enjoy the present which is also going to be a “Golden Day” tomorrow.  Even though we are much much better in many ways today compare to THOSE days, still what make us to adopt and accept THOSE days as BEST days ?

No answer to me and searching for the same

Srini

Unwanted things

I was just seeing the content inside a cupboard and found there were many things that I never used in the past about a year or so.  Still many things, what I use it very seldom or never, were kept in the house and occupying spaces. Some of such things I found was old Camera, Video Game, 2 number of 256 kb memory Organisers, number of 1.44 mb Floppy disks, Glass taken out from a photo frame etc.. The list may be a lengthy one.   Many of these items were once used by me and may be kept as a memory or thinking it may be useful “someday”. I posted a question on FB to know whether it is applicable to others also and found everyone sails on the same boat.  Whether we are having time to see these things or to use it? May be NO.  I am sure in each house, atleast such things will be to the tune of 40% to 50% that is not used for months / years together but occupying good amount of space.  Many of such things will be thrown out Or given to others only if you vacate a house and go to another house.  If you are residing in a rented house, chances of cleaning things will be more compare to the family living in their own houses. 

Question stuck my mind whether we are preserving such things because we used them for some time, liked it, loved it and want to keep it physically as a memory? Many may say YES.  But my question is, we like and love our relatives, pets etc.  But if we lost anyone, even if it is our beloved father or mother or a dog or a cat or even if it is a flower plant (all living things), we just make our mind to next step and dispose the body or plant. We never continue to keep them with us by preserving. But why such thing is not happening to non-living things and we are continuing to preserve it?  Which love is more powerful? Love towards our beloved or towards such non living things?

I could not get an answer… Can someone through more light on this?   

Srini

Some Interesting Quotes

1. “Identify your problems but give your power and energy to solutions.” Tony Robbins

2. “You live longer once you realize that any time spent being unhappy is wasted.” Ruth E. Renkl

3. “The only true wisdom is knowing that you know nothing.” Socrates

4. “Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.” John Wooden

5. “Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed.”  Abraham Lincoln

6. ” If you are not willing to risk the usual you will have to settle for the ordinary.” Jim Rohn

7. “Trust because you are willing to accept the risk, not because it’s safe or certain.” Anonymous

8. “When your life flashes before your eyes, make sure you’ve got plenty to watch.” Anonymous

9. “Screw it, Let’s do it!” Richard Branson

10. “Be content to act, and leave the talking to others.” Baltasa

11. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” Steve Jobs

12. “The more you loose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have.” Norman Vincent Peale

13. “If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to meet it!” Jonathan Winters

14. “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” Zig Ziglar

15. “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” John Wayne

16.“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.” Les Brown

17. “The link between my experience as an entrepreneur and that of a politician is all in one word: freedom.”Silvio Berlusconi

18. “The entrepreneur builds an enterprise; the technician builds a job.” Michael Gerber

19. “A real entrepreneur is somebody who has no safety net underneath them.” Henry Kravis

20. “Most new jobs won’t come from our biggest employers. They will come from our smallest. We’ve got to do everything we can to make entrepreneurial dreams a reality.”  Ross Perot

21. “My son is now an ‘entrepreneur’. That’s what you’re called when you don’t have a job.” Ted Turner

22. “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” Bill Gates

23. “As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.” Donald Trump

24. “If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.” Thomas J Watson

25. “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Thomas Edison

26. “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” Vidal Sassoon

27. “Capital isn’t scarce; vision is.” Sam Walton

28. “Failure defeats losers, failure inspires winners.” Robert T. Kiyosaki

29. “Some people dream of great accomplishments, while others stay awake and do them.” Anonymous

30. “I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.” Warren Buffet

31. “Going into business for yourself, becoming an entrepreneur, is the modern-day equivalent of pioneering on the old frontier.” Paula Nelson

32. “Poor people have big TV. Rich people have big library.” Jim Rohn

33. “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” Napoleon Hill

34. “Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I’m not there, I go to work.” Vinnie Rege

35. “Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.” Zig Ziglar

36. “People are not lazy. They simply have important goals – that is, goals that do not inspire them.” Tony Robbins

37. “Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as survival, but that’s exactly what it is.” Anita Roddick

38. “The best reason to start an organization is to make meaning; to create a product or service to make the world a better place.” Guy Kawasaki

39. “A friendship founded on business is a good deal better than a business founded on friendship.” John D. Rockefeller

40. “I’ve been blessed to find people who are smarter than I am, and they help me to execute the vision I have.” Russell Simmons

41. “I find that when you have a real interest in life and a curious life, that sleep is not the most important thing.” Martha Stewart

42. “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” Albert Einstein

43. “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”  Maya Angelou

44. “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” Winston Churchill

45. “The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” Ralph Nader

46. “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” Benjamin Franklin

47. “Big pay and little responsibility are circumstances seldom found together.” Napoleon Hill

48. Make your product easier to buy than your competition, or you will find your customers buying from them, not you.” Mark Cuban

49. “The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.” Colin R. Davis

50. “If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.” Jack Welch

Shared by Sridhar

A worth TV Program

Switching over TV channels one after one, without seeing any program fully, is common among many people.  We are also not exempted from this illness. 

Today, as usual, I was changing channels to see any “GOOD” program is being telecasted, I came across a discussion show in Sun News.  It was a re-telecast.  4 people were discussing about impact of Social networking sites, how children were trapped in this net, how to come out of this etc.  Really, I feel, it was a good program.

Main point came out of this discussion was that we, parents, should be more careful and should know about these social networking sites, pros and cons of these sites, how to use these sites, what are the controls available on these sites, how to use them and lastly it should be our responsibility to guide the young generation.  Unless otherwise we know about it, we cannot control and educate our children.

Not spending quality time with children is also one of the main reasons why children are becoming addict to this situation, it was told.  Parents are not giving options to children what they can do but now-a-days they were asked NOT to do many things.  These social network sites give space for them to do whatever they were asked not to do.

It is stated that having an account in these network sites were viewed as “status” and more the number of “Friends” you have are treated as a “SOCIAL” and “ALL KNOWN” person. The data stated in the program that in India, 8 million members were there in FB in 2011 and it grown to 80 million in 2013.  Ten times in just 2 years.

The unfortunate issue is, there are no wide spread advertisements for such programs. For a film, there will be an advt. every 10 min for a week and almost for all “Serials” and “Products” there is plenty of advertisements.  It is very rare to see such good programs in TV now-a-days and something should be there to tell and share about such programs to many people well in advance.

Courier Service

One of the impacted service sector as part of privatization is Courier Services.  Many people prefer to send documents, letters (any one write letters today?) through private couriers only over using Indian Postal Service.

May be in the initial stage, the private courier service was working fine but my personal feeling is it made life miserable.

The disadvantages I am finding are

1. Cost is more compare to Indian Post
2. Time taken to deliver is much more than Indian Post
3. You will not get any proper response (in most of the cases) from the courier company in case there is a failure in delivery
4. No personal touch between service provider and user.  I remember how the post man will remember each and every member of every family in the area where he serves.
5. No timing for delivery by private courier.  They will come and knock the door at any time.  We know, when Post man will come and there is a regular timing for delivery.  We can accommodate our time according to that time to receive any important letter
6. No information left-out by courier person if the door is locked and pocket is undelivered.  I know a postman will leave a message that letter could not be delivered so that it can be collected from Post office.
7. It is a nightmare to get back the letter from a courier service provider as chain of people are engaged on outsource model and it was next to impossible to trace it. It is very much systematic in Indian Postal Service (Recent incident I met on Receipt of PAN card)
8. It happened many times that after receipt of SMS from Bank or such firms that statement is sent through courier never received by me. No compliant works in private courier. You will get prompt response from Indian Post.
9. Private courier person asking additional money stating he spent more time to locate the address for delivery !!!! Yes it happened really.
10. Courier Service providers mostly will not accept letters for all destinations

1. Still why many prefer Private Courier? Is it because of the myth that government employee will not work?

நண்பேண்டா....

Whenever the song அந்த நாள் ஞாபகம் வந்ததே நண்பனே telecasted in TV, I used to tell about my Best, Good old school mate Sekar. We both studied together from 3rd standard to 11th standard in St. Joseph’s School and we almost used to sit in the same bench or just behind. He also stayed in Babu Rao Street with his grand parent. We were together till 1976.


After school, he joined AU for PUC and I shifted my residence to Deevanampattinam and subsequently he went to South Tamilnadu for college study and we could not meet each other.


We both along with some of our friends used to go to school together, come back together, play together, read together and days went like this.


There was an unforgettable event happened during our schooling, a silly thing but viewed very seriously! I think, we may be in class 8 and we were very crazy to ride cycle whenever chance comes as we leant cycling during that period. Sekar’s mama purchased a new cycle and he used to ride it in the evening. Being a new cycle and also may be as per his uncle’s instruction he did not allow anyone including me to touch that cycle. Because of this, I just kept a piece of brick on the carrier of the cycle and Sekar scold me for my act. This led to a tussle between us and we two stopped talking. It last till we complete our schooling !!! The funny part is even though we don’t speak directly with each other, all earlier activities continued – going to school together, playing together, even reading together. I still remember that we two along with a common friend sit together for preparation of 11th exam and I used to ask for clearing doubt to him through 3rd person and he will also clear it through that person !! At last we all scored good marks in 11th Exam. He is also one among the top 5 in the class, all the years


The hand writing of Sekar is excellent and often I tried to replicate him but could not. Also he had good voice that led him to get selected for singing prayer songs in the school daily.

We got separated after 11th Exam, even without talking a single word even though my inner voice asked me to talk but ego stopped.

It was 1978, one day, I saw him sitting in the திண்ணை of his house, and probably he might have come to visit his grand parent. Two year separation softened me and without any hesitation I went to him and started speaking. What a relief I felt on that day !!! We started speaking of our college life and he asked me to accompany him to a film also. With good feeling he went back for his college studies and again we could not able to meet or speak.

The separation continued for next 12 Years and my entire search could not yield result to find him out. But just before my marriage in 1990, I could get his where about and came to know he is in Thirunelveli and working in Post Office. With lot of Joy I spoke to him, shared my contact details and invited him for my marriage. Due to some unavoidable work, he could not make to visit and again because of his transfer and my movement to Delhi, what to say, we got separated.

The power of friendship and my inner voice continue to tell me that we will meet again one day.

With the available knowledge about him - working in Post Office some where near Thirunelveli, having good voice, about my age - I again searched for him through one of my friend in Thenkasi. That friend’s wife is also working in Post Office and she asked my whether Sekar is a singer and used to give program in All India Radio & his nick name is கரிசல் குயில் ? As I don’t know about him, any how I got the contact number and dialed. What a surprise – it was the same Sekar !! I again got him after a span of 20 years…

It is an example that real friendship will never die !!!

We started sharing information and started speaking regularly. We want to meet each other but somehow it was getting postponed.

As I planned to visit Chennai in the first week of Feb 2012, I asked him to come to Chennai anyhow and he also made it.

It was 12th Feb 2012, we planned to meet. Till now we did not exchanged out photos and I asked him to come to T.Nagar to meet me. It was 1700 hours on that day, he told me he is waiting near “Thaayar Dairy” on Ranganathan Street, wearing Blue shirt.. I came and we met each other --- after 34 years……. Words are not there to explain the happiness. More than us, his wife was very much excited and was online to know about our meeting, asking about me.

We started speaking about these long years, sitting on the shore of Bay of Bengal till 2100 hours. I was impressed when he mentioned about my activities while going to school, about the help I used to get from my mother before going to school and all other small things happened in our school life. Time was not sufficient to recollect everything but was an enjoyable time we spent together.

After having dinner together, he went back to his stay place and in the next morning again he came to Thiruvanmiyur and we did our day’s business together. We were together till 1600 hours and he left back for starting his journey to Thirunelveli.

I am sure that this friendship will continue for ever as this was started when we were young & started without any expectation from other.

Thanks Sekar for making the day and let us continue our life further, together !!!! Let us not forget the person who bridged us… Ramanathan from Thenkasi.

Vasu

You are in our thought

You would be 85 today.......


You led a simple life --- many times for others, I know.


The love and affection you showed on us were still in front of us, refreshing our thought and memory.


We leant a lot from you and it helps us in leading a meaningful life.


We are thinking of you every time and you are still living with us.


I can not do anything to you now but can remember you always and follow your way of life.

Bless all of us to have a Healthy, Wealthy, Happy and Wonderful life.

Ever Loving

Vasu