Friendship
A story is told about a soldier who was finally coming home from the war. He called his parents from San Francisco.
"Mom and Dad, I'm coming home, but I've a favor to ask. I have a friend I'd like to bring home with me."
"Sure," they replied, "we'd love to meet him."
"There's something you should know the son continued, "he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped on a landmine and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live with us."
"I'm sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live."
"No, Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us."
"Son," said the father, "you don't know what you're asking. Someone with such a handicap would be a terrible burden on us. We have our own lives to live, and we can't let something like this interfere with our lives. I think you should just come home and forget about this guy. He'll find a way to live on his own."
At that point, the son hung up the phone. The parents heard nothing more from him. A few days later, however, they received a call from the San Francisco police. Their son had died after falling from a building, they were told. The police believed it was suicide. The grief-stricken parents flew to San Francisco and were taken to the city morgue to identify the body of their son. They recognized him, but to their horror they also discovered something they didn't know, their son had only one arm and one leg.
The parents in this story are like many of us. We find it easy to love those who are good-looking or fun to have around, but we don't like people who inconvenience us or make us feel uncomfortable. We would rather stay away from people who aren't as healthy, beautiful, or smart as we are. Thankfully, there's someone who won't treat us that way. Someone who loves us with an unconditional love that welcomes us into the forever family, regardless of how messed up we are.
Tonight, before you tuck yourself in for the night, say a little prayer that God will give you the strength you need to accept people as they are, and to help us all be more understanding of those who are different from us!!! There's a miracle called Friendship That dwells in the heart You don't know how it happens Or when it gets started But you know the special lift It always brings And you realize that Friendship
is God's most precious gift! Friends are a very rare jewel, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed They lend an ear, they share a word of praise, and they always want to open their hearts to us.
Dear,
FAIR & LOVELY (Ek Tukda Chand Ka),
You are my TVS SCOOTY (First Love) and my AIWA (Pure Passion).
I always BPL (Believe in the Best) and you are SANSUI (Better Than The Best). You are DOMINO'S PIZZA (Delivering Million Smiles) for me. This is a COLGATE ENERGY GEL (Seriously Fresh) feeling for me. As you know I am REYMOND (The Complete Man) for you, I want you to be my life partner but I think you are worried about your father who is KAWASAKI BAJAJ CALIBER (The Unshakable) and my father who is CEAT (Born Tough) but don't worry as I am also FORD ICON (The Josh Machine) and my ambision like BRISTOL (I get, what I want) rest of our family members are pretty KELVINATORS (The Coolest Ones). If they will say no, we will run away and marry and PHILIPS (Let's Make Things Better). In our marriage SAMSUNG (Everyone's Invited). Our parents will feel MIRINDA ( zor ka jhatka dhire se lage) but I believe in COCA COLA (jo chahe ho jaye).Trust in the God who's always NOKIA (Connecting People) who love each other. And we are WILLS (Made For Each Other). Now that HYUNDAI (We are Listening) the song of love, you must know that love is DAIRY MILK (Real Taste of Life), SATYAM ONLINE (Fun Fast Easy) and PARX (Always Comfortable). So never forget me.
Ok bye I wrote little but PEPSI (ye dil maange
more).
LG (Digitally yours),
Who is the co-founder of Sun Microsystems?
Vinod Khosla
Who is the creator of Pentium chip (needs no introduction as 90%
of the today's computers run on it)?
Vinod Dahm
Who is the third richest man on the world?
A. According to the latest report on Fortune Magazine, it is AZIM PREMJI, who
is the CEO of Wipro Industries. The Sultan of Brunei is at 6th position now.
Who is the founder and creator of Hotmail (Hotmail is world's
No.1 web based email program)?
Sabeer Bhatia
Who is the president of AT & T-Bell Labs (AT &
T).Bell
Labs is the creator of program languages such as C, C++, Unix to name a few)?
Arun Netravalli
Who is the GM of Hewlett Packard?
Rajiv Gupta
Who is the new MTD (Microsoft Testing Director) of Windows 2000,
responsible to iron out all initial problems?
Sanjay Tejwrika
Who are the Chief Executives of CitiBank, Mckensey & Stanchart?
Victor Menezes, Rajat Gupta, and Rana Talwar.
We Indians are the wealthiest among all ethnic groups in America, even faring
better than the whites and the natives. There are 3.22 millions of Indians in
USA (1.5% of population). YET,
38% of doctors in USA are Indians.
12% scientists in USA are Indians.
36% of NASA scientists are Indians.
34% of Microsoft employees are Indians.
28% of IBM employees are Indians.
17% of INTEL scientists are Indians.
13% of XEROX employees are Indians.
You may know some of the following facts. These facts were recently published in a German magazine, which deals with WORLD HISTORY FACTS ABOUT INDIA.
01. India never invaded any country in her last 1000 years of history.
02. India invented the Number system. Aryabhatta invented 'zero.'
03. The world's first University was established in Takshila in 700BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century BC was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.
04. According to the Forbes magazine, Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software.
05. Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans.
06. Although western media portray modern images of India as poverty striken and underdeveloped through political corruption, India was once the richest empire on earth.
07. The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 5000 years ago. The very word "Navigation" is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH.
08. The value of pi was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is now known as the Pythagorean Theorem. British scholars have last year (1999) officially published that Budhayan's works dates to the 6th Century, which is long before the European mathematicians.
09. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India. Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11th Century; the largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Indians used numbers as big as 1053.
10. According to the Gemmological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds to the world.
11. USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century-old suspicion amongst academics that the pioneer of wireless communication was Professor Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.
12. The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.
13. Chess was invented in India.
14. Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted surgeries like cesareans, cataract, fractures and urinary stones. Usage of anaesthesia was well known in ancient India.
15. When many cultures in the world were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilisation).
16. The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC.
Quotes about India.
We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without
which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.
Albert Einstein.
India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother
of history, the grandmother of legend and the great grand mother of tradition.
Mark Twain.
If there is one place on the face of earth where all dreams of
living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the
dream of existence, it is India.
French scholar Romain Rolland.
India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries
without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.
Hu Shih.
(Former Chinese ambassador to USA)
ALL OF THE ABOVE IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG, THE LIST COULD BE ENDLESS.
BUT,
if we don't see even a glimpse of that great India in the India that we see today, it clearly means that we are not working up to our potential; and that if we do, we could once again be an ever shining and inspiring country setting a bright path for rest of the world to follow. I hope you enjoyed it and work towards the welfare of INDIA.
Say proudly, I AM AN INDIAN. ………….
"I have three visions for India. In 3000 years of our history, people from all over the world have come and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds. From Alexander onwards, the Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, and their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them. Why?
This is because we respect the freedom of others. That is why my first vision is that of FREEDOM. I believe that India got its first vision of this in 1857, when we started the war of independence. It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and build on. If we are not free, no one will respect us.
My second vision for India is DEVELOPMENT.For fifty years we have been a developing nation. It is time we see ourselves as a developed nation. We are among top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP. We have 10 percent growth rate in most areas. Our poverty levels are falling. Our achievements are being globally recognized today. Yet we lack the self-confidence to see ourselves as a developed nation, self- reliant and self-assured. Isn't this incorrect?
I have a THIRD vision.
India must stand up to the world. Because I believe that, unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. Only strength respects strength. We must be strong not only as a military power but also as an economic power. Both must go hand-in-hand. My good fortune was to have worked with three great minds. Dr Vikram Sarabhai of the Dept of Space, Prof Satish Dhawan, who succeeded him and Dr Brahm Prakash,father of nuclear material. I was lucky to have worked with all three of them closely and consider this the great opportunity of my life.
I see four milestones in my career:-
Twenty years I spent in ISRO. I was given the opportunity to be the project director for India's first satellite launch vehicle, SLV3 -the vehicle that launched Rohini. These years played a very important role in my life of Scientist.
After my ISRO years, I joined DRDO and got a chance to be the part of India's guided missile program. It was my second bliss when Agni met its mission requirements in 1994. The Dept. of Atomic Energy and DRDO had this tremendous partnership in the recent nuclear tests, on May 11 and 13. This was the third bliss.
The joy of participating with my team in these nuclear tests and proving to the world that India can make it, that we are no longer a developing nation but one of them. It made me feel very proud as an Indian. The fact that we have now developed for Agni a re-entry structure, for which we have developed this new material ? a very light material called carbon-carbon.
One day an orthopedic surgeon from Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences visited my laboratory. He lifted the material and found it so light that he took me to his hospital and showed me his patients. There were these little girls and boys with heavy metallic calipers weighing over three Kg. each, dragging their feet around. He said to me:Please remove the pain of my patients. In three weeks, we made these Floor reaction Orthosis 300-gram calipers and took them to the orthopedic center. The children didn't believe their eyes. From dragging around a three kg. load on their legs, they could now move around! Their parents had tears in their eyes.
That was my fourth bliss!
Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation.
We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why?
We are the first in milk production.
We are number one in remote sensing satellites.
We are the second largest producer of wheat.
We are the second largest producer of rice.
Look at Dr. Sudarshan, he has transferred the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self-driving unit. There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters. I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert land into an orchid and a granary. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news. In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so NEGATIVE?
Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things?
Why do we want foreign TVs, why do we want foreign shirts? Why do we want foreign technology? Why this obsession with everything imported? Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance?
I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14-year-old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is. She replied: I want to live in a developed India. For her, you and I will have to build this developed India. You must proclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation. Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to take you with a vengeance.
Give 10 minutes for your country, and read on:
YOU say that our government is inefficient.
YOU say that our laws are too old.
YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage.
YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke, the airline is the worst in the world,
YOU say that mails never reach their destination.
YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits.
YOU say, say and say. What do YOU do about it?
Take a person on his way to Singapore. Give him a name - YOURS. Give him a face - YOURS. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your international best. In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud of their Underground links as they are. You pay $5 (Rs 60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM.
YOU come back to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity. In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU?
YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai. YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in jeddah. YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs.650) a month to, "see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else."
YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, "Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost."
YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand. Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo? Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston??? We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here in India?
Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay, Mr.Tinaikar, had a point to make. "Rich people's dogs are walked on the streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place," he said. "And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the officers to do? Go down with a broom every time their dog feels the pressure in his bowels? In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan. Will the Indian citizen do that here?" He's right. We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick a up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin.
We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms. We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity. This applies even to the staff that is known not to pass on the service to the public. When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl child and others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse? "It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons' rights to a dowry."
So who's going to change the system? What does a system consist of ? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbors, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU! When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr. Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the country and run away.
Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to England. When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.
Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a great deal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too.... I am echoing J.F.Kennedy's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians...
"ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY"
Lets do what India needs from us.
Thank you,
Dr. Abdul Kalaam
(PRESIDENT OF INDIA)
10 th Grade
As I sat there in English class, stared at the girl next to me.
She was my so-called 'best friend', stared at her long, silky hair,and wished she was mine.But she didn't notice me like that, and I knew it.After class, she walked up to me and asked me for the notes she had missed the day before.I handed them to her.She said 'thanks' and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
I want to tell her, I want her to know that I don t want to be just friends,love her but I'm just too shy, and I don't know why.
11th grade
The phone rang. On the other end, it was her.She was in tears, mumbling on and on about how! her love had broke her heart.She asked me to come over because she didn't want to be alone, So I did.As I sat next to her on the sofa, stared at her oft eyes, wishing she was mine.After 2 hours, one Drew Barrymore movie, and three bags of chips, she decided to go home.She looked at me, said 'thanks' and gave me a kiss on the cheek..
I want to tell her, I want her to know that don't want to be just friends,I love her but I'm just too shy, and I don t know why.
Senior year
One fine day she walked to my locker."My date is sick" she said, "hes not gonna go" well,I didn't have a date, and in 7th grade,we made a promise that if neither of us had dates,we would go together just as 'best friends'.So we did. That night, after everything was over, I was standing at her front door step.I stared at! her as She smiled at me and stared at me with her crystal eyes.Then she said- "I had the best time, thanks!" and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
I want to tell her, I want her to know that I don t want to be just friends,I love her but I'm just too shy,and I don't know why.
Graduation
A day passed, then a week, then a month.Before I could blink, it was graduation day, watched as her perfect body floated like an angel up on stage to get her diploma.I wanted her to be mine-but she didn't notice me like that, and I knew it.Before everyone went home, she came to me in her smock and hat,and cried as I hugged her.Then she lifted her head from my shoulder and said- 'you're my best friend, thanks' and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
I want to tell her, I want her to know that I don t want to be just friends,I love her but I'm just too shy,and I don't know why.
Marriage
Now I sit in the pews of the church.That girl is getting married now. and drive off to her new life, married to another man.I wanted her to be mine, but she didn't see me like that, and I knew it.But before she drove away, she came to me and said 'you came !'.She said 'thanks' and kissed me on the cheek.
I want her to know that I don't want to be just friends, I love her but I'm just too shy,and I don't know why.
Death
Years passed, I looked down at the coffin of a girl who used to ! be my 'best friend'.
At the service, they read a diary entry she had wrote in her high school years.
This is what it read:
"I stare at him wishing he was mine;
but he doesn't notice me like that,
and I know it. I want to tell him,
I want him to know that I don't want to be just friends,I love him but I'm just too shy,and I don't know why.
I wish he would tell me he loved me
'I wish I did too...'
I thought to my self, and I Cried and Cried.
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy,
it deosn't mttaer
in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny
iprmoetnt tihng is
taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae.
The rset can be a
toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit
porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we
do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as
a wlohe.