Love For Life

It was well past midnight. Mostly all her fellow passengers were fast asleep . Lolita generally could not enjoy a sound sleep on a train. She didnt mind it much because she loved looking out at the world passing by so swiftly. As it was dark outside she sat on her berth glancing now and then at any activity happenning in the compartment.
The young man ,from the berth on top of her came down and tucked the sheet gently around his wife ,who was fast asleep on the berth opposite them. Lolita smiled at the warm love on the man's face as he tucked his wife.He turned and met Lolita's eyes and he smiled. She smiled back . Hesitantly he then asked if he could sit on her berth for a while as he was not getting any sleep. Why would she have any objection? She had been watching the couple all day . At her age of seventy, you tend to see all your relations in the people you meet.
She had noticed the wife doing most of the talking of whatever talking took place. The boy was generally quiet.Both spent their time reading or sleeping. Lolita wondered why do people not talk? In today's time when everybody is struggling to manage their different roles in time ,a train journey can do such wonders. One can just talk ,talk and talk. She smiled at her thoughts for all her life she had always been very fond of talking,sharing thoughts ,views.. why should she judge everybody by her parameters?
It is so strange that at times it seems the most natural thing to talk and that exactly happened now. The seventy year old Lolita and the forty year old Anmol just got talking. To her surprise she kept listening to the man who she had seen to be so silent and immersed within self, the whole day. He spoke about his family ,his work and that he and his wife were returning home after a short holiday.
Suddenly Anmol realised that he had been doing a lot of talking so looked embaressed.
''Can I ask you something,if you dont mind?''Lolita said.
''Sure'' pat came his reply.
''I did not find the two of you talking much the whole day . I am very pleasantly surprised at how good you are to converse with. So why this contradictary behaviour?''
''Aunty I think over a period of time both of us have withdrawn ourselves from conversations,unless necessary, to avoid problems.''said Anmol sheepishly.
Lolita was not shocked. She had seen many such people all her life. She felt sad like she always felt looking at people who had given up in life.
She could see the love between these two, it was evident in various actions of both the people but probably like so many around ,they also did not want to live life fully.
To live a full life you need to love life. Only then will you give in your everything to make it fuller and more beautiful.
But Lolita knew that you can not tell others to love life.
Sad ,but even at this age ,with all her share of trifles and tribulations, she is still looking for more colours to paint the canvass of Life for she has not yet come across the reason to stop loving Life.

Praise Or Not To Praise

''My grand parents always loved my sister more than me'' quipped in Ritu.

''That is not true''protested Rahul,''Father loved both you sisters equally and so did mother . Both of you were so very very dear to them.''

''No ,Ria has always been their favourite. They only had things to talk about her. She was the best ...she did this ....she did that ...'' and Ritu stomped out of the room with moist eyes .

Rahul and Roli sat bewildered looking at each other. Memories of Rahul's parents with their daughters flashed by on their mind screen. How they doted on these grand daughters !How did Ritu come up with such wrong thoughts?

Roli remembered an incident of the past. She had attended a family wedding shortly after her own marriage. She had gone there without her in laws. She had had a great time as she could use the occassion to gel with a big chunk of her new family at one shot. She enjoyed every moment of it and returned with many new warm relations in her heart.

After a while ,her mom in law received a letter from one of Rahul's aunt, praising Roli and showering her with blessings for her reaching out to the family ,at the wedding and congratulating her to have such a loving bahu. Roli saw her mom in law beam ,reading the letter ,then passed it to Roli to read too. Roli remembered mumbling something at such unexpected shower of praise. Suddenly she was shocked . Her mom in law had torn the letter and threw it in the dust bin.Roli did nt understand this.Generally mother would keep the letters on the dining table for all her four sons and bahus to read . Why then had she torn away this letter?

Roli noticed that there was no mention of the letter at the dinner table too. She was feeling uncomfortable. At night she narrated the incident to Rahul . Rahul drew her in his arms and said ,''Dont worry ,mother loves you a lot, but she did not want any ill feelings in any body's mind against you so she tore away the letter.''

''Why ill feelings against me?''Roli was aghast.

''Because you are noticed and praised for things that may be, are not valued as much by others or some in the house. Things that you will be loved for by others may point out the very lack of the same in some ,leading to seeds of jealousy.Mother does not want such feelings in the family and I feel she is right too.''Rahu said smilingly.''We all choose to value different things in life and are known through them. People who value the same things ,will be sort of alike and would be noticed in a similar manner ,but people who do not value the same things do so probably for their own reasons. They will never like to be pointed out this difference through some one else .''

Now Roli could understand Ritu's outburst better. Ritu and Ria had always been so different by nature.Where Ritu was the one who would be immersed in her self most of the time Ria would entwine herself around people effortlessly. Roli remembered her in laws talking of so many things that Ria would do when they would go visiting her and her husband.Small things ,small actions that would shower her grandparents with feelings of love ,want ,need and joy.

Roli realised that probably all that ,over a period of time conveyed more love for Ria than Ritu in the later's mind. Sadly she could do nothing to change this false belief from her own daughter's mind .

We must always appreciate goodness...the right things that a person does ..but we should be careful not to present that in a sense of contrast between others closely around.

Actually people do not intend to do so . Sometimes they do it to applaud goodness, sometimes they express their joy on finding their values in their loved ones and sometimes also with the intention of showing the sweet rewards of goodness but it is treading on dangerous grounds.

Who knows what seedling gets planted in whose heart which grows into a tree to show it's undesired fruits, ironically without you having any role to play in it.

Happy Teacher's Day

Teacher's day is celebrated in the memory of the great scholar and teacher the Late Dr. Radhakrishnan.It is a day where we talk about the teachers in our country.We talk about it being a noble profession. We talk about the teachers who are different as they touch the lives of many. The teachers ,it is said ,have the power to shape a nation.
We all have had teachers in our lives and it is for each one of us to claim the role they have played in shaping our lives.We grow up and our children are sent to be shaped up in the hands of people, called'' Teachers.''

Who are these ''teacher's'' for us?
They are -
people who will change our children from what ever we have made them, to the best.

they are magicians who will keep on working at our children,relentlessly,to make them unlearn everything that we keep on feeding our children with relentlessly, in order to teach them the basic pre-requisites to education ,the first of them being-Respecting the teacher.
We teach our children to criticise our teachers for we ourselves ,have no respect for them .

Without respect there is no faith and so no learning.
Teachers are expected to somehow make the children marks churning machines- there is no quest for knowledge.

It is like treating an uneven barren land with more and more chemical fertilizers and pesticides for more and more produce.
Without working on the land,any amount of fertilizer and pesticide will not yield the desired produce-in fact it would cause much far reaching damage than can be thought of.

Then the capabilities of the teachers are questioned. The nobility of the profession is questioned?
Why is it that only the Teachers are supposed to be 'Noble'

Do the teachers not come out of our society itself?
A noble society will have noble people and so noble teachers.

Yes Teachers do have the power to guide the youth , to shape the nation,but only if it starts with the quest to learn on the part of the children and before that the want in the parents to be clear as to what do they want their children to learn?
The parents should want their children to learn goodness. They should want their children to learn to differentiate the right from the wrong ...they should want to learn to shape up their own lives....
There is no age for learning. It is a continous process.

Unfortunately ,at any age , we do not want to learn.
At any age , we believe we know better than what is being taught to us.
This humility of the need to learn is disappearing rapidly from within us and sadly , has swept down to even our children at such formative age.

We feel we do not need to learn so they too believe the same.
We should never let the feeling of knowing too much ,harbour in our minds.
Eager learners always find life beautiful.
To have people who we can trust with knowledge and our welfare ,is one of the greatest boons of life.
Let us all remain eager students for life that will feel warmly protected by our teachers.
Teachers? Any body we respect and trust is our Teacher.
Let us all remember that anything valued by us will only be valuable to us.
Let us value our teachers to add value to our lives.
Then there will be no dearth of teachers like the one being faced today in so many fields in our country.
The western world already has been facing this problem for a long time ,but INDIA ? Dearth of teachers?
A land of knowledge...known for the great teachers for centuries....
Let us stop this downfall and value our Teachers.

Smart Good

Rohan,a young army captain,could not wait for the journey to end. It already was long enough and he was dying to meet his Mumli and Dadu...his grandparents , to whom he was going to, after almost 5 years. He loved them dearly and his postings had kept him away from them for so long. His grandparents lived in a small village . He just had to cross the river and he would be there.It was a surprise visit so he could not help smiling ,thinking of their faces when they would see him.

As he was to set his foot on the bridge to cross the river ,he saw a fairly old man bending over the river,trying to pull something. He looked down to see exactly what the man was up to . The saffron clothes made him some sadhu. Rohan saw the sadhu trying to help a scorpion that was struggling to come out of the water. The sadhu picked up the scorpion by his hand and was about to drop it on land when the scorpion stung the sadhu on his finger . The pain shook the sadhu's hand and the scorpion fell in the water again,this time slightly farther away from the shore.

To his surprise, Rohan saw the sadhu wading through the water and reaching out to the scorpion ,picking it up again and on returning to the shore ,when he was just about to drop it ,the scorpion stung hard again.The burning pain involuntarily shook the sadhu's hand again carrying the scorpion even farther away in the river water.

On seeing the sadhu setting off to rescue the creature again,Rohan called out to him. The sadhu stopped in the water and waited for Rohan to come down . Rohan ran down and on reaching the sadhu asked him,''You are trying to save this creature maharaj, that has stung you twice? Will it not sting again?''

The sadhu answered with a smile,''It is the nature of the scorpion to sting but it is my nature to help. How can I let go of my nature that I have nurtured over the years with such dedication for a lowly nature?''saying this the sadhu turned to move towards the struggling scorpion.

Rohan said,''Maharaj, just a minute please.''

Saying this he broke a long twig from a tree close by,got down into the river ,stretching his arm pulled the scorpion with the twig and swirled it away to the neighboring bush.

Rohan looked at the sadhu smilingly,came out of the water and set out to finish his journey.

It always pays to be Smart,when we use it to be Good.

We can always retain our characteristics that we have nurtured by choice .

It is foolish to throw away our strentgh for other's weaknesses.

Prayer In Need??????

All of us pray in times of Need. Greater the need ,the more we pray.The need drives us to pray.Sometimes we feel our prayers have been answered and we talk of The Benovalent God.The times our prayers are not answered God becomes cruel, heartless and noncomprehensible to us.
Once a storm broke out in the middle of the sea. A ship had to face it's brunt. It was rocking like crazy. Everybody on board got terribly scared and fell on to their knees ,praying to God.Strong pleas , complaints, promises were being made to God crying to be saved . Tears were running down their faces,loud sobs escaped their hearts and the ship was being thrown up and down by the ruthless storm. The messengers of Death were taking their positions to carry away their charges soon. They looked at everyone and suddenly their eyes fell on one person. He was the Captain of the ship and he alone was trying his best to keep the ship in control.There was no panic on his face and with all his concentration he was trying to steerhis ship through that storm.
One of the messengers asked the Captain,''Are you not afraid of the storm?How is it that you are not praying like others to ask God for help?Do you not want to live?''
''Oh yes, I do want to live,''replied the captain''and I love life so very much that I say my prayers everyday. I pray to God asking Him to grant me the strength to face adversities ,whenever they come my way.He has granted me the same with which I am fighting this storm and I will get the ship out of it.''
The captain prayed and prayed in Deed. He had the wisdom to know that the good and the bad that happen in our life are mere translations of our own actions. So it is much wiser to pray to God to give us the sense to understand our actions correctly so that the results do not shock us.
Life is what we make it to be. It is as valuable as we value it to be. People who understand this become eager learners and so they learn.The saying is so very apt that says...
It is but Human, to make mistakes;
It is the foolish ,who keep on repeating their mistakes;
It is the clever ,who learn from their mistakes;
But it is the wise ,who learn from other's mistakes.
We have an ocean of knowledge in the form of life all around us to learn from. It is only up to us how much we truely value life to pick out the pearls of wisdom and string them to beautify our lives or just spend our lives as a sheep of a herd.
The wise will always pray in DEED to sail through in the time of NEED.

The Serenity Prayer

''Lord,give me the SERENITY to accept the things that I cannot change;

give me the COURAGE to change the things that I can ;

and give me the WISDOM to know the difference.''

Is the prayer not wonderful?

Is it not so very relevant to our lives?

I love this prayer. I say it everyday.I feel that is these are the most precious things that I can ask from God.

We set out to change things around us to our liking.

We set out to change people around us for our happiness.

Sometimes we also try to change things for their own happiness.

We must understand and remember that it is for each one of us to find happiness so we cannot find it for others.

We still try doing it with the purpose of sparing them pain,but nobody can do so for others...we need to remember that .

It is us,only who can keep ourselves away from pain.

So does it mean that no-one should teach the right from the wrong?

No, we must teach till a certain age and then only when the want to learn is there. The rest of the time we must remember that life is indeed the greatest teacher and each can derive one's knowledge from it depending on how much of a learner we are .

Imposing our thoughts and knowledge does more harm than good. for imposing means applying force and force is always assosiated with unwillingness.
Unwillingness will have unreceptivity so any teaching will not have a positive result.

Each one of us is different from each other so naturally there would be difference in opinion.

It is always wise to develop the tolerance for the differences...to have the open mindedness to accept these differences...and not make them personal issues.

Who knows when we realise that there are so many even better views than our own....the views that are more relevant with times ..
All we need to do is to keep saying this prayer with all our humbleness and gratitude so that the Lord grants us what we pray for ...
Amen!

Home Sweet Home

How familiar is this expression to all of us?How often we say this after a long tiring day?How often we long for it when we are away for long periods of time?How most of our happy memories are assosiated with this word 'Home' ?
Undoubtedely,Home is a word that fills us with a sweet warmth and comfort. An inexpressable joy surges through our heart at the mere thought of it ,while we are away.So how is Home so special? It is basically a nonliving surrounding ,that we choose to make special with life.
Any amount of luxury and splendour alone can not make a Home sweet. It is the love we feel for it ,makes it special.So Home is actually where the heart is.
Something that is so special ,we needto nurture it. We need to give it our love only then can it remain special.Heart thrives on feelings and expressions. If expressions are missing or even lacking, nothing can compensate them.
I speak of this because yesterday I got to know that a Home has broken. The couple has separated. What stood out from the conversation was that the husband felt that the wife did not do anything for the Home. Ofcourse this was just one of the things . The wife never had the time nor the energy after work to tend to and nurture their Home. It is definetely a joint thing but active participation from both is essential.Any one being passive or inactive will have it's toll on the Home.
The other day someone was mentioning that times have changed so fast . Till some years back Homes signified people,their laughter ,their sorrows,their activities ....the Homes looked ALIVE. Now most of the Homes are shut through the day ,to be opened to rest the nights. Housewives did not like the designation and so the term Home-makers evolved...now that too is getting obselete and so no surprise that minus the home-makers the Homes are also going for a toss.
I do not know if Education is only about being unidimensional. I would feel Good Education would help a person to see things with better clarity and so would make it easier for them to carve their own path to happiness.

Any achievement is desirable,appreciable but Education should help us see the price that we pay for it.In the times that we value are materialistic needs over our emotional ones....where we give ourselves to only acquire rather than GIVE ....Home Sweet Home may just become an expression of the past ...
We want name, fame, big house , even more wealth for what for who? For our own loved ones ? But we do not have the time to give that Love NOW...we only live for the future and in the processs do not even realise when the present slips away from our hands...

Homes will be sweet only if we keep infusing that sweetness regularly with our expressions and actions ...otherwise like Plants die for lack of water ...Homes will also crumble away for lack of nurturance.
I hope our education teaches this to all of us.

Aam Ke Aam, Guthlion Ke Daam

'Mamma,could you please teach me some basic cooking?''asked Abhi.''Sure''quipped in his mom ,gladly looking at her married son sitting across the room.

Her friend,who had come visiting them for a day ,later asked her that why did such a simple question from her son make her so happy?''Is learning the culinary skill all that important?''

Palak explained that she thought the acquiring of this particular skill pretty important and she was so happy because apparently her son, Abhi too would have felt the same ,to want to learn it.

Actually ,we often read or hear about this skill ...both overplayed as well as underplayed many a times.Overplayed by attaching it to specially girls as one of the all important parameters. This is generally done by the adults ,who percieve the culinary skill as a top scorer for girls. On the other hand the girls, specially the girls who take pride in believing themselves to be better qualified in terms of education and profession,underplay it ,to the extent of looking down upon it as something they are overqualified to know or do.

Both are wrong. Each one of us has a right to our life , to shape it the way we want to .We do it ,too. We choose to learn things to modify us, beautify us and to lead a happy life. I think the happy part is not thought about ,while making these choices. We get very shortsighted and dont allow us to reach to the very very basic need in our lives-eating. We ,with the flow of adrenalin in our heads by our other achievements,simply tread over this skill that is the base of our physical as well as our emotional existence. I have never heard of an underfed person ever doing great shakes in any field. In fact a happily fed is more probable to doing better things.

The culinary skill also has the unique advantage of being the ONLY expression of care that is is understood across boundaries ,sex and age-again because of it's universal need. This simple skill if taken up in the right spirit can be so much fun ,creative and joyful.

Palak said smilingly,''Smriti ,I feel reching to a person's heart through his/her stomach is always a very rewarding and satisfying experience though definetely not the only one,but surely the safest one. So when I see my son taking interest in this skill I feel proud and happy.''

This wonderful skill also is a very effective one to strengthen the strong'' I ''in us the right way ,for this allows us to do small acts for our loved ones on a regular basis , enriching our own lives in turn. So its ''Aam ke aam , guthlion ke dam'' Meaning double benefit from a single act..

So is that really not smart?

I bet it is!!!!!!!!!!!

A Happy Couple ??????

''I have never seen a Happy Couple in my life'' wrote Sonu Nigam , the well known singer,that got published in the papers a few days back.
Do you have happy couples? Or do you have people who may be known to be happy couples?
No one can be happy every moment of his /her life and that does not classify him to be unhappy . We all have happy moments in our lives. People who are aware and work towards it , cherish these moments and try to have more of them ,as a result have more and more such moments in their lives classifying to be happy . Most of the people nurture the not so happy moments and as a result succeed in having the same piled into their lives and they classify to be unhappy .
You always can give and spread what you have-so you can see and feel happiness only if you have it ,want it. When you are only looking for unhappiness or in other words you are not happy with what you have you get unhappiness and the world looks unhappy to you.
Each life has its fair share of ups and downs. We can nurture the goods ,be grateful for what ever we have at the same time trying to better ourselves,instead of cursing the world and victimising self. That does not mean we do not work for more ,it only means we work for more AFTER we accept what we have with gratitude. This acceptance gives us strength to move forward . If we keep on rejecting what we have ,very shortly we will be left with NOTHING .
Accepting ,respecting and nurturing the present has a higher probability of a happy and satisfied future.
The world looks happy and we get to see many happy couples only if we are happy .
Dear Sonu ,with so much talent , achievement,a nice wife ,a cute child you talk of Death and unhappiness. I wish and pray you get the sense to value what all you have instead of throwing away your present happiness in want for MORE.
Yes Death is inevetible but everything seems proper at the right time and talking can not usher in that time for us so it would be better if we could find beauty in LIFE while living and can appreciate Death when it comes.

I before We

Technology is progressing in Leaps and Bounds and Man is being swept off his feet. We are choosing machines over humans in our lives and no wonder we are increasingly getting closer to the former and farther from the later.

No doubt communication has been redifined unbelievably. We have the access to the world. We can reach out to the poles and share our thoughts views and beliefs. Anything and everything seems to be communicable in an instant.We laugh and cry with the world. We are moved at the slightest of misfortune, angry at every injustice, are ready to fight for a global cause-all thanks to technology.I feel happy seeing this mass euphoria that I may call it and many things are put right because of the mass attention. I feel at times that man has evolved or is evolving to our age old mantra of-Vasudev Kutumbkam- but I have certain doubts that I dont find answers to.

Man ,who is evolving to the higher forms of humanity ,by making the world its home ...why is failing to keep his own small home intact and happy? Why are we more into social service leaving our own families to be taken care by such organisations ? How is it that we have widened our sphere of communication to such impressive limits but have not succeeded in nurturing a good healthy communication with our very close ones?How is that our increasing intolerance to our family, friends converting to tolerance for understanding the larger problems of the world?

At times I feel we are playing a very foolish game. By feeding ourselves with larger issues and believing ourselves to be capable and designed to tackle them ,we are losing what we already have. We fail to work on our relationships ,blame them curse them and run away from them . But run away to where and to whom? To the world which is face less and to the people who we do not know. How can our intolerance change to tolerance for others ? It can never. So we keep fooling ourselves in thinking that we are doing great shakes in our lives, talking of big things and rising above the petty bindings.

What happens then? We are lonely , we are stressed and we are unhappy.

So does it mean that we only remain selfish ?

Yes we must be selfish in its purest form . We must be good to ourselves. Please do not forget the word Good. It means being true to oneself. Doing our own jobs to the best of our capabilities. Making our families happy by working and nurturing relationships. We have to work on the I first before we go to the WE .

The more number of people accept this ,understand this and practise this easy and simple funda of life,more beautiful and meaningful Life would become. There would be more joy and happiness instead of the words like stress, nervous breakdown and disappointments.

Let all the I's ,the happy I's very naturally unite to make a happy We.

Talking Grief

''Pooja, there is a sad news-Monica has lost her child. She 's had a miscarriage yesterday night.''spoke Akarsh to his wife. Monica was going through a difficult pregnancy and was confined

'to bed for the last four months. Sadly she had to lose it thought Pooja.

''Are you going to see her today?''asked Pooja

''I want to but Im not sure. The others here in the office very strongly believe that she should be left to herself and we should go only after some days. What do you feel I should do Pooja?'' Monica worked in the same organisation as Akarsh.

Pooja paused for a moment and said ''Id go if I were you. ''

''Wouldnt that be intruding on one's privacy in an awkward situation?'' asked Akarsh thoughtfully.

'' May be , may be not . I choose to go for the may be not option. I feel reaching out to our close ones at the time of grief is essential on our part. If this is not taken very nicely by the concerned person we can always apologize and back out ,without feeling guilty about it and if you decide to go Id like to go with you .''replied Pooja.

''O.K. then lets go in the evening.''

Both of them reached the hospital where Monica was admitted. They went straight to her room,knocked and went in.Monica smiled at them . They went and sat near her and held her hand . She just started talking of how the day was the saddest in her life. How she did not know what to do to ease the pain ,how much she was looking forward to holding her baby and on and on she went. She has a very loving husband who was also talking so naturally about the whole thing that it was amazing how such sad things ,such personal things could be spoken of so naturally . Pooja and Akarsh stayed there for some time then took leave leaving Monica to rest . Monica and her husband thanked them for coming and expressed their appreciation for the thoughtfulness.

On their way back Akarsh and Pooja discussed that how nice it was that they had gone to see Monica and that their going had done her some good. They realised that may be Talking Grief is the best way of dealing with it. We try to suppress grief, hide grief with various justifications but talking grief is dealing with it head on and so is the most effective.

Talking Grief not only helps the sufferer but also strengthens the bonds between their close ones. Grief brings people closer and talking grief also causes the least damage .

Monica had really shown them how easily you can talk grief.

A Simple Truth

''Hey Simran your advice did work wonders. I have been able to put a stop to my weight gain,though I have to still shed off quiet a few more but what I am happy about is that I have understood the simple equation that you were discussing the last time that we met some months back.''Said Prateek ,all smiles to Simran.

''what is this that you are talking about?''turned Rohan''do I hear a weight check?''

''I was discussing my crazy working hours and that how it was impossible to continue with the games that I couldnt keep up with any more and then Simran said some very few simple things. I could not follow all of them but I have started with a few and it works. ''said Prateek .

''O.K. Simran.so you are now a physical trainer or something or what ? Jokes apart can we hear your thoughts on this weight problem issue''Said Divya.

Simran was feeling embarressed but the topic was on and everyone really wanted her to speak.

She mustered all her courage for she knew that she was neither a trained trainor nor a dietician. Still she spoke out her simple thoughts.

Simran started.''These are what I have come to believe through understanding. Any body may or may not agree to them and I am open to any thing contradictory if it is backed by logic .

See it is simple

what ever we eat is digested and is used up for the work that we do ...The unused food gets deposited as fats ..which means to prevent this deposition we need to work more.

When we fail to utilize this unused food we start decreasing our intake. That is fine to some extent but we forget that food provides for many other essentials in our body ,that also get decreased in our body . The natural nutrients can not be substituted by pills...

So then we start work outs ,gyms, and it works ....but only for the time that they are practsed. Now with today's crazy scedules many a days we just cannot go to the gym..then we feel stressed. We move away socially because we do not have time.''

''So is gymming bad?''

''Do we realize that we by our choice work to accumulate fat and then work to get rid of the fat ?''

''How?''

'' By taking ourselves away from any form of physical work. The fatter we become lesser the time to work for we need more time to work out?Every little job is shunned and done away with. A mind that shuns physical work will always have this problem of weight.''

''Instead if we do not shun physical work and do as much as possible eagerly ,happily and willingly then automatically our movements will change. we will be able to do so many small small things that will bring us happiness ...bring others happiness and more importantly we will be working out through the day naturally not artificially. I see so many young mothers in the gardens with maids carrying their children, their bags and everything ....we also had children but we always carried them ourselves ,tended to all their needs ourselvesalong with the rest of the house work cooking and everything with regular guests here and there. We did that because we never placed mental work above physical . We believed and practised in giving equal importance to both and so with all that physical work we got pleasure , nurtured relationships ,cared for others and never ever felt burdened. In today's times I feel, we need to make efforts to be as close with our families as possible by being there , feeling for them ,doing things for them and once we can get ourselves into the love work mode from the hate work mode our lives will change.We will not enslave our lives with luxuries but would always be strong ,self reliant and raring to go .''

''We must understand and practise Dignity of Labour''

''As for Prateek I had told him the same things like walk when ever you can...ban the lift....avoid home deliveries ...run out for the errands yourself ...thats it ..I m happy that he has understood the concept and that it is working for him...I do not mean to offend anyone by my views ..everyone has the right to their's ...I just expressed mine and all of that I have always practised in my life ...

enough of all this folks come lets have dinner''

Dadu's story

'' I have to tell you a Dadu's story today'' said Mrs Khanna to her husband while sitting for breakfast. ''Dadu's story? Dadu meant grandfather , so what story has mother to tell now?'' thought Smriti getting ready for work. It was a normal morning where her mother had come back after spending 2 hrs in the park ...walking doing some yoga and also a bit of chatting .

''There is this old man I have been seeing for the past few days ,who comes to the park with an empty pram. Poor thing he has a grandchild whom he has brought for all these years ,bringing him to the park,playing with him and suddenly one day his son has gone away to another country taking his son along. The dadu does not know what to do and has lost his mental balance . He has not been able to give up his routine and now he comes with the empty pram, parks it aside takes his rounds , does his free hand excercises and in about 2 hrs wheels out the empty pram back home. Poor Dadu ..my heart went out to him ..but this is the fate of all dadus ,isnt it? The grandchildren grow up in their hands and walk ahead leaving them alone ...so alone...why do the old people have to be so unfortunate?''stopped Mrs Khanna after this emotional outburst . ''One minute Mom''said Smriti'' how did you get to know the details ? Did you ask the man?''
''How stupid ? How can you ask such things?''said Mimmy
''Then some body who knows him would have told you. right?'' asked Smriti
''Does anyone need to tell this story? Isnt it so obvious Smriti?''
''Hold on Mom..obvious?Do you mean to say that you have gueesed the WHOLE story?''
''I do not understand what you are trying to say Smriti?''
''Mom please ask someone tomorrow about the man and you may just get to know the truth.''
''what truth?''
''Mom there could be so many explanations. He could just be taking the child to some play group or creche or any where just try checking it out please?''
The next morning Mrs Knanna returned from the park with an embaressed look.
''Smriti I waited for some time today and I saw him taking the pram to the adjacent building from where he took a cute boy and wheeled him back home . But tell me how would I know that anything like this could also be the case? I saw him with the empty pram and ...

''and thought about the saddest thing that can happen mom? Why mom could you not think of some happy story?''said Smriti thoughtfully...

why does man always think for ,fear for look for unhappiness and unhappiness alone ? and they look for it so desperately that they get it?
Why do we always even imagine ourselves to be victims of the circumstances...
why do we glorify misfortunes?
why do we only pity ourselves?
Does man not learn in life that he will find what he looks for so if he really looks for happiness he will find it everywhere .
How sad Mrs and Mr Khanna are blessed with a family ...a complete family and still they are writing a Dadu's story....a sad Dadu's story...