Parrot

Yesterday I noticed a parrot in cage in my neighbor’s house and it made me recall that two parrots have died in the same cage and it’s the third one they bought recently.

I am forced to think that human beings are horrible to animals. What if somebody puts us in a small cage for all our life? What’d be our life after that? I think it is hideous practice and should be made illegal. Whenever I see birds in cages I feel very sad because I can’t let them out. If one has to keep bird in cage then its ok as long as you let them out for exercise flights in the house. Cages should be large and proper care must be taken.

But it’s damn cruel to clip their wings and never let them out of their cage. I'm not happy about keeping animals or birds in small cages and so I would never keep a bird. If we had more compassion for animals we’d be better people and we’d be happier too.

If you would read only one book in your life?

Firstly, I strongly recommend that all of us read much much more than just one book in our life :)... (of course other than the school books) But what if I were to read only one book in my entire life time? Which book should this be?

I am not the most voracious reader type (many people I have met actually read one or more book per week) but from whatever reading I have done, I have following preference --

1. Any religious\spiritual book in which you believe... may be Bible, Gita, Quran or any spiritual books. (Hinduism believes that the ultimate aim of human life is to seek God, and hence if we just want to read only one book then why not devote it to the ultimate aim)

2. For more materialistic humans like me :), I would recommend "The magic of Thinking Big" by David Schwartz.

This book has the potential to change our thinking and affect every possible dimension of our life. I read this book long ago and I keep going back to read certain chapters to pep up myself. More on this book sometime later... :)

Let me know which book would you read if you are to read only one book in your life???

Stray Dogs

During my early morning walk today, I saw a girl with her cute pet puppy. Suddenly a couple of street dogs started barking at the pet. Unfortunately street dogs or stray dogs are still a reality is most cities of India. These are the dogs born and raised on streets with no one being owner or caretaker. And as the herd mentality goes, hearing the barking sound a few more stray dogs from nearing areas joined the chorus. The girl was a little perturbed and as it was morning there were very few people around (hardly any I guess).

I went up to the girl, consoled her by the old saying that barking dogs seldom bite, called a cab to make sure that she along with Silky reach home safely. (by the way Silky is the pet's name). I felt like a hero who just rescued a little girl and her pet...but I was about to see another hero....

As the cab drew away, one of the stray dogs, who seemed to be the leader of the pack, ran behind the cab for a distance. Constantly barking and waging his tail, after running a while he came back with a sort of winner's smile of face :) ... Happy that he shoo away an intruder from his territory...

Meanwhile I have found an NGO on internet dedicated to the cause of Stray dogs... Time to call them up....

Things that........... (3)

20. Comedy movies.

21. When my friends say – you’ll sure go on top and I pray God please listen to them. :)

22. Sitting on the bank of Ganga (river) and feeling it is heaven on earth.

23. Missing past with a smile on my face & realizing how mad I was, sometimes I still am.

24. New ideas of making money.

25. Helping others.

26. Greenery and fresh wind especially of Tea garden. :)

27. Looking out over my entire hometown.

A little girl....

Can we really just think and grow rich…???? This was the thought which crossed my mind when I first saw the title ‘Think and grow rich’ on a book….

Curious… I picked up the book and found that it actually contained a lot of meat about human behavior and human endeavors.

Unless I think something how can I do or achieve that? All great work begins with a thought…blah blah blah....I have read this many times….

But the very first story about this little girl touched me deeply… I would simply narrate the story here …

The story is setup in a little older time where racial discrimination seemed to be still prevalent...

A young man was helping his uncle grind wheat in an old fashioned mill. The uncle operated a large farm on which a number of colored sharecrop farmers lived. Quietly the door opened and a small colored child, daughter of a tenant, walked in and stood near the door. The uncle saw the child and barked at her roughly - "What do you want?" Meekly the child replied, "My mommy say send her Fifty cents". "I'll not", the uncle retorted, "Now you run home.""Yes, sah," the child replied. But she did not move. The uncle went ahead with his work, so busy that he did not notice that child has not left. When he looked up and saw her still standing, he furiously yelled "I told you to go home or I'll take a switch to you."
The little girl said "Yes Sah" but she did not budge an inch. The uncle dropped the sack of grain he was about to pour into the mill hopper, picked a barrel stave, and started toward the child with an expression which indicated trouble.

The young man held his breath, he was sure he was about to witness a murder as he knew his uncle's fierce temper. He knew that colored children were not supposed to defy white people in that part of the country.

When the uncle reached close to the child, she quickly stepped forward one step, looked up into his eyes, and screamed at top of her shrill voice, "MY MOMMY'S GOT TO HAVE THAT FIFTY CENTS."

The uncle stopped, looked at her for a minute, then slowly laid the barrel stave on floor, put his hand in his pocket, took out half a dollar and gave it to the girl. The child took the money, slowly backed towards the door, never taking her eyes off the man she had just conquered.

I seem to be loving this book. I might bore you all with some more posts from the book soon :) :) :)....

Things that make me happy (1)

1.   Tea makes me happy. Anytime in day or night a tea is enough to turn me on.

2.   Nature, sky, clouds, sunrise n sunsets, jungle, river, falls and mountains.

3.   Being with family and friends.

4.   Making someone laugh. :)

5.   Synthesizer.

6.   Smiling and happy faces.

7.   Moments in which I feel intelligent. :)

8.   A good meal.

    9. The sky

HITCHHIKING..!!

Past two yrs, during my course, I met people from different places of India. Now sometimes I miss few things that I used to do over there.

I miss hitchhiking most. Every morning I used to go-to-go to college and return back to room only by hitchhiking. Often I felt like my last ride when I got to be pillion of a drunken man and he drove rashly. :)

That time I swear not to hitchhike next time but next day I am ready for it again. J

Number of times I could not attend my first lecture because I was waiting for a car and nobody stopped that day. I didn’t feel like going on bike or any other vehicle. I was about to debar due to short attendance in first lecture :) I had to submit a medical certificate for that.

I met really interesting people this way. Some people ask bookful questions during the short journey that I feel like asking them please drop me here only I’d rather go by foot than to answer your worthless questions. While some people are very interesting and they appreciate this way of going to college and it reminds their days of hitchhiking.

I did not have to spend a single penny on going to college. Although it was not my aim, but was a great fun and adventure everyday. :)