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Tuesday, 15 November 2005

Never judge by outside

A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston and walked timidly without an appointment into the Harvard University President's outer office.

The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no business at Harvard and probably didn't even deserve to be in Cambridge.

"We want to see the president," the man said softly.

"He'll be busy all day," the secretary snapped.

"We'll wait," the lady replied.

For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away. They didn't and the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president, even though it was a chore she always regretted.

"Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll leave," she said to him.

He sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously didn't have the time to spend with them, but he detested gingham dresses and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office.

The president, stern faced and with dignity, strutted toward the couple.

The lady told him, "We had a son who attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. My husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus."


The president wasn't touched.... He was shocked.

"Madam," he said, gruffly, "we can't put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery."

"Oh, no," the lady explained quickly. "We don't want to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard."

The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, and then exclaimed, "A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical buildings here at Harvard."

For a moment the lady was silent.

The president was pleased. Maybe he could get rid of them now.

The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is that all it costs to start a university? Why don't we just start our own?"

Her husband nodded.

The president's face wilted in confusion and bewilderment. Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California where they established the University that bears their name, Stanford University, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.

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Friday, 14 October 2005

Too much to handle


An Aligator? Too much for a Python to handle October 6, 2005 —Unfortunately for a 13-foot (4-meter) Burmese python in Florida's Everglades National Park, eating the enemy seems to have caused the voracious reptile to bust a gut—literally.

Wildlife researchers with the South Florida Natural Resources Center found the dead python last week after it apparently tried to digest a 6-foot-long (2-meter-long) American alligator. The mostly intact dead gator was found sticking out of a hole in the midsection of the python, and wads of gator skin were found in the snake's gastrointestinal tract.

The gruesome discovery suggests that the python's feisty last meal might have been too much for it to handle. -- NG
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Remember the Malayalam saying ''Kokkil Kollunnate Kothavoo" ?

Intention of McCauley

Lord McCauley in his speech of 2 Feb 1835, British Parliament

Intention of Lord McCauley

"I have traveled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber,that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem,their native self-culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation".

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Thursday, 13 October 2005

A Failure Survey

A worldwide survey was conducted by the UN.
The only question asked was:
"Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food
shortage in the rest of the world?"

The survey was a huge failure!
In Africa they didn't know what 'food' meant,
In India they didn't know what 'honest' meant,
In Europe they didn't know what 'shortage' meant,
In China they didn't know what 'opinion' meant,
In the Middle East they didn't know what 'solution' meant,
In South America they didn't know what 'please' meant,

In US they didn't know what 'the rest of the world' meant.

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Tribute to the victims


In the town of Puri, Indians gather on October 10 to pay tribute around a sand sculpture depicting trauma caused by the recent South Asian earthquake. -- NG

Sunday, 9 October 2005

Effciency of human body

Our heart beats around 100,000 times every day.

Our blood is on a 60,000-mile journey.

Our eyes can distinguish up to one million color surfaces and take in more information than the largest telescope known to man.

Our lungs inhale over two million liters of air every day, without even thinking. They are large enough to cover a tennis court.

Our hearing is so sensitive it can distinguish between hundreds of thousands of different sounds.

Our sense of touch is more refined than any device ever created.

Our brain is more complex than the most powerful computer and has over 100 billion nerve cells.

We give birth to 100 billion red cells every day.

When we touch something, we send a message to our brain at 124 mph.

We have over 600 muscles.

We exercise at least 30 muscles when we smile.

We are about 70 percent water.

We make one liter of saliva a day.

Our nose is our personal air-conditioning system: it warms cold air, cools hot air and filters impurities.

In one square inch of our hand we have nine feet of blood vessels, 600 pain sensors, 9000 nerve endings, 36 heat sensors and 75 pressure sensors

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If Days Were Without

Without God's Love the days of the week would have been:

Mourn day, not Monday

Tears day, not Tuesday

Waste day, not Wednesday

Thirst day, not Thursday

Fight day, not Friday

Shatter day, not Saturday

& Sad day not Sunday.
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Tuesday, 11 January 2005

Give in Abundance


When you give...

give in abundance.

give happily

give with a smile

give with awareness

then you are the Lord.

Celebration of Life


"Life should be a celebration. Every day should be a celebration. Every moment, should be a celebration, a lesson, a memory to treasure forever.

If we allow our entertainment to be devoid of culture, it will only lead us to danger. When culture and entertainment are blended together, life becomes a true celebration." - Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi