Fool's Gold

An old miser lived in a house with a garden. The miser hid his gold coins in a pit under some stones in the garden. Every day, before going to bed, the miser went to the stones where he hid the gold and counted the coins. He continued this routine every day, but not once did he spend the gold he saved.

One day, a thief who knew the old miser’s routine, waited for the old man to go back into his house. After it was dark, the thief went to the hiding place and took the gold. The next day, the old miser found that his treasure was missing and started crying loudly.

His neighbor heard the miser’s cries and inquired about what happened. On learning what happened, the neighbor asked, “Why didn’t you save the money inside the house? It would’ve been easier to access the money when you had to buy something!”

“Buy?”, said the miser. “I never used the gold to buy anything. I was never going to spend it.”

On hearing this, the neighbor threw a stone into the pit and said, “If that is the case, save the stone. It is as worthless as the gold you have lost”.

Moral

A possession is just as worthy of what it is used for.

Gold Touch

In ancient Greek, there was a king named Midas. He had a lot of gold and everything he needed. He also had a beautiful daughter. Midas loved his gold very much, but he loved his daughter more than his riches.

One day, a satyr named Silenus got drunk and passed out in Midas’ rose garden. Believing that Satyrs always bring good luck, Midas lets Silenus rest in his palace until he is sober, against the wishes of his wife and daughter. Silenus is a friend of Dionysus, the god of wine and celebration. Upon learning Midas’ kindness towards his friend, Dionysus decides to reward the keg.

When asked to wish for something, Midas says “I wish everything I touch turns to gold”. Although Dionysus knew it was not a great idea, he granted Midas his wish.

Happy that his wish was granted, Midas went around touching random things in the garden and his palace and turned them all into gold. He touched an apple, and it turned into a shiny gold apple. His subjects were astonished but happy to see so much gold in the palace.

In his happiness, Midas went and hugged his daughter, and before he realized, he turned her into a lifeless, golden statue! Aghast, Midas ran back to the garden and called for Dionysus. He begged the god to take away his power and save his daughter. Dionysus gives Midas a solution to change everything back to how it was before the wish. Midas learned his lesson and lived the rest of his life contended with what he had.

Moral

Do not get greedy. Be happy and content with what you have.

“There once was a little boy who had a very bad temper. His father decided to hand him a bag of nails and said that every time the boy lost his temper, he had to hammer a nail into the fence.

On the first day, the boy hammered 37 nails into that fence.

The boy gradually began to control his temper over the next few weeks, and the number of nails he was hammering into the fence slowly decreased. He discovered it was easier to control his temper than to hammer those nails into the fence.

Finally, the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father the news and the father suggested that the boy should now pull out a nail every day he kept his temper under control.

The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence.

‘You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there.'”

 Value

A popular speaker started off a seminar by holding up a $20 bill. A crowd of 200 had gathered to hear him speak. He asked, “Who would like this $20 bill?”

200 hands went up.

He said, “I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this.” He crumpled the bill up.

He then asked, “Who still wants it?”

All 200 hands were still raised.

“Well,” he replied, “What if I do this?” Then he dropped the bill on the ground and stomped on it with his shoes.

He picked it up, and showed it to the crowd. The bill was all crumpled and dirty.

“Now who still wants it?”

All the hands still went up.

“My friends, I have just showed you a very important lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, life crumples us and grinds us into the dirt. We make bad decisions or deal with poor circumstances. We feel worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. You are special – Don’t ever forget it!

Essence of Time

 A Very Special Bank Account

Imagine you had a bank account that deposited $86,400 each morning. The account carries over no balance from day to day, allows you to keep no cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every dollar each day!

We all have such a bank. Its name is Time. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever time you have failed to use wisely. It carries over no balance from day to day. It allows no overdraft so you can’t borrow against yourself or use more time than you have. Each day, the account starts fresh. Each night, it destroys an unused time. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, it’s your loss and you can’t appeal to get it back.

There is never any borrowing time. You can’t take a loan out on your time or against someone else’s. The time you have is the time you have and that is that. Time management is yours to decide how you spend the time, just as with money you decide how you spend the money. It is never the case of us not having enough time to do things, but the case of whether we want to do them and where they fall in our priorities.

1. The Dean Schooled Them

One night four college kids stayed out late, partying and having a good time. They paid no mind to the test they had scheduled for the next day and didn’t study. In the morning, they hatched a plan to get out of taking their test. They covered themselves with grease and dirt and went to the Dean’s office. Once there, they said they had been to a wedding the previous night and on the way back they got a flat tire and had to push the car back to campus.

The Dean listened to their tale of woe and thought. He offered them a retest three days later. They thanked him and accepted his offer.hat time.

When the test day arrived, they went to the Dean. The Dean put them all in separate rooms for the test. They were fine with this since they had all studied hard. Then they saw the test. It had 2 questions.

1) Your Name __________ (1 Points)

2) Which tire burst? __________ (99 Points)
Options – (a) Front Left (b) Front Right (c) Back Left (d) Back Right

The lesson: always be responsible and make wise decisions.

                                                      SUNNY DRY DAY IN THE TROPICS

                                                          NAKURU ;KENYA ; EAST EAST

                              A NICE CANOPY OF A PLACE IN THE TROPICS.

                                                    NAKURU KENYA

Work on time…hopefully

        Ruin-calamities shattered me…I was seated in a public transport vehicle as I travelled back to Nakuru. The voyage was long and tedious with no breaks and my stomach began to curl from within. I had an action packed weekend with no breaks as I awaited the new release of my favorite anime, Dragon ball super a phizz-whizzing story as the Roald Dahl would describe it.

    Though I felt incomplete as if I were forgetting something but it did not strike the gong yet for it the hols. A time to sit back and nullify all thoughts of homework. When we (my mom, my sister and I) had just arrived in Nakuru I thought about my adventures in Nairobi, it was a special day my aunt had just got married wishing her a happy wedded life.

    In Nakuru I woke up at 8 am every morning an aberration of my normal school life of waking up at 5am eyes closed as anew born baby blindsided by the ray that burst from the window panes. I just felt as if I was forgetting something what could it possibly be that hardened my heart to stone and the ache in my that withered and shriveled my sparkling notions.

    Abruptly from nowhere I here my mum’s phone ringing it is right there in front of me if only I could reach it but… it keeps going further away why? Then suddenly I am drowning in water. I immediately woke up and rushed to my computer to type an article. That was what was giving me an ache. Ruin-calamities. The week when we closed school a group of ‘writers’ were given an assignment , rather biased, to write articles over the hols and I happened to forget a liability in me that I have been trying to rid.

  

by kind permission

WHY THE PRESS?

WHY THE PRESS?

We are the people, who clear the mess,

When people are eager to hear,

To hear the cause of the stress,

And the final say about the peer.

Because we are the press who impress

We bring the curfew to peace,

We bring the true truth to you,

The truth of your life in a piece,

And everyone changes in a second or two.

Because we the press, we impress.

We do our best for you,

But you think it’s a waste of time,

A waste of time that you think is a crime,

But agree with me, our tips are new.

Because as the press we impress.

To stress on ‘why the press’,

We are the ones who impress.

by kind permission

The Curse of the Dump

The Curse of the Dump

I wince at the thought of having to brave the ever-present gloom that reigns there. The Dump is a strange and repulsive place, where people tend to bury the human spirit along with their refuse.

From the main road, the Dump looked like a prison. The perimeter was surrounded by an eight-foot chain-link with barbed-wire stretched tightly around the top of it. As I followed the slow procession of vehicles through the front gate, I noticed a man peeking through the blinds of a dirty office building. The building's tan exterior was peeling away, probably as a result of prolonged exposure to the toxic environment. Up on a hill overshadowing the recycling bins, there was another unsightly tan building. This one was twenty-five feet tall and draped with rusty sheet-metal. Trucks full of old furniture, brush, and tree limbs were unloaded inside of this building, for it contained the largest crushing machine on the premises. When activated, it made torturous scraping noises accompanied by splintering crackles. The old building looked like it had been rammed into at least a hundred times, and if it happened one more time, it would collapse taking every thing in it straight to hell.

The stench was unbearable. I pulled my shirt up over my nose to try and filter the bitter air. Moments later, I saw a rat fumbling around with a Mac Donald's bag. Weeds bordering the fence were littered with plastic wrappers, styrofoam cups, and other non-biodegradable materials. Polluted water that was seeping out of the dumpsters had formed stagnate puddles that were infested with thousands of tiny spasmodic worms. I wondered how that anyone could work in this foul environment and remain healthy, either physically or mentally.

People at the Dump all had the same blank expression on their faces, void of any emotion. They came in like robots, emptied their trash, and sped away as fast as possible without running someone over. A man with his pants not completely pulled up was crawling through a dumpster full of old washers and dryers. At one point he surfaced, paced back and forth furiously, and then dove back in. No one seemed to care, or even notice for that matter. A young man at the next bin over was throwing away black plastic bags full of roofing shingles. The reason I knew this is because one of the bags ripped open while he was hurling it into the dumpster. And the shingles caught my attention after just reading a sign that said, Absolutely no contractor or construction debris. Within minutes, a man wearing a coffee stained T-shirt and a hat bearing the Dump's company logo approached the young offender. He said, "Son, whatcha got in them bags?" The young man replied, "Just some old garbage." Knowing that the young man was lying, the employee with a sinister yellow grin said, "Them bags look awful heavy son. Are you sure you don't have any body parts in there?" I decided to leave the two men alone; after all, my task was finished.

In conclusion, the Dump is an eerie and malodorous place, where we tend to bury our spirit--our very humanity, along with our refuse. The Dump is a metaphor for death, a graveyard laden with the excess of society. The repulsive nature of the dump reminds us that one day we too will decompose and be recycled back into nature. Because we find this distasteful, we bury our true feelings behind a robotic nature. And after finally realizing that the curse of the Dump is creeping upon us, we run away to escape its infectious melancholy.

by kind permission

WHAT SEPARATES BRILLIANCE AND MEDIOCRITY

You may ask yourself what does it even mean to be brilliant, is it when the whole world is praising your golden talent? Is it having a Wikipedia article titled with your name? Or is it to believe in yourself and being bold enough for everyone to know?

For me , the key is to believe in yourself and loving  yourself for  who you are; not  the person  you desire  to be  , or  the  fake mask you  have applied . you don’t  have to try and fit in everywhere  and feel undeserved by attempting to validate yourself. Most importantly, you don’t need to be perfect, no one is! You are the best version of yourself the way nature designed you.

But what if I think that others don’t see the potential in me? What if I let the whole world look at my imperfections? And what if people  don’t  like  the real me, they only like  the perfect, projected  hero who is strong , never  does  anything  wrong  and  cares  for  everyone? If you encounter such feeble thoughts, unfortunately you think wrong.

The invisible barrier  of  mediocrity is in your  way , the  same  border  which  separates  the average Joe from the dazzling geniuses. You must first be who you really are, and do what you need to do in order to have what you really want. You can decide to follow the common route and lead a safe life the way everyone else does. On the contrary , you may take the road less traveled , go  through  various  ups  and downs,  and reach the top and  prove your  significance , but only  if  you are persistent  enough.

Mediocrity is the element holding you  back from expressing yourself, mediocrity is what is telling  you  to play it safe  and not risk it, mediocrity  is what is not letting you take your   next big  step  for  a journey of  a life  time. Remember  , your  success is not  a  destination , but  rather  a journey  with several , mysterious  twists  and turns.

On the  other  hand , to  be  brilliant is to work on weaknesses and  capitalizing them into  strengths , to be  brilliant is to  love  your  flaws and embrace them. To be brilliant is to believe that you can do things considered astronomical by the masses. Most importantly, to be brilliant is to let go of who you are supposed to be, not what the society demands you to be.

Do not forget that to your climb to the summit, you will face many struggles.

RULES EVERYWHERE

RULES EVERYWHERE

When was the last time you broke a rule? Likewise, how many rules do you follow in your day to day life? They are omnipresent, and whether you like it or not, you are always under the surveillance of a superior authority. Thereby, is it you who defines the rules, or do the rules define you?

What about a world without rules? Lets start with a place we are familiar with – a classroom. When a teacher asks a question do you politely raise your hand so that you will be selected, or blatantly blurt whatever comes first in your head? If it is the former, it’s probably because there is a rule that binds your conscience on your conduct. Just imagine if everyone screamed at the answer aloud whenever they wanted …. Chaotic, right?

If you are like most of the kids, you may deem that there are too many rules governing you. They are everywhere, starting from table manners to the rules of your favourite sport but without them nothing would fall into its place. You may yet be asking why they even exist, but the answer will only be revealed at its absence. Like many other things, they are almost always taken for granted.

Have you ever broken a sweat on thinking where would we be if no one ever followed a set of instructions? To live and function in a society, there must be a code of ethics. Breaking some of these would see little or no consequences, but you are certain to smell the prison bars if you try your luck with every rule you meet. The habit of obeying the small rules is what sets your moral resistance against the more crucial guidelines.

What about the saying “rules are meant to be broken?” there has always been the inner instinct of many to go against the flow. That is how they thrill themselves. No matter how necessary they may seem, there will always come a day when a commandment becomes obsolete. A good example would be how rapidly traditional rules are dissipating.

All in all , it  has quite often  been  that  you lose your  real  identity living in this  constricted  world. Even though it may seem that playing by the rules is safest way to go, you must not overlook the fact that real history is only created when rules are broken. I would like to end, with a quote from Adolf Hitler, who was a ruler himself – “if you don’t like a rule …. Just follow it….. Reach on the top ….. And change it.

Ambar Chakraborty

LET'S LIVE

Let it go ….

How many of us have been wronged or trespassed against?

Or had been bullied with no one to aid you?

Let it go ….

In one way, or another we have wronged someone else, may it be intentional or not.

However, it doesn’t matter how many times you have wronged someone else OR yourself because human beings are the only organisms capable of starting over.

Let it go ….

You can not live with bitterness for ever, you need to live happily , life is not a rehearsal but a real thing , live it to the fullest.

LOVE , THE GREATEST OF ALL

	Thu, 11 Oct 2018, 19:58

Love is a four lettered word that we all want, we work for it day and night. It's a word that we value the most and on the other hand still abuse it. Love is just it a matter of sitting together, it's not a matter of standing together, love is more than holding hands and hugging each other it's looking in the same direction. Love is authentically our obligation and collective responsibility to engender waves after waves that physically contacts the welkin and covers the cosmos that is the symbol of love. Love is independent of words, it's a much deeper meaning that should be explored and treasured. Love makes everything rosy but without it, it's like a garden with dead flowers. Since birth we respond to love, authentically we would feel safe in the impotent arms of our mom but insecure the vigorous arms of a man. We genuinely incline to confound and consider love to be an entity but genuinely it's a verb, love is felt and optically discerned in action and less in an entity. Love is just not the potency that opens the chamber of our heart but it additionally opens the secret that opens the secret of the entire macrocosm. Without love the whole world would be a graveyard. Just as Martin Luther puts it “Darkness cannot drive out darkness only light can, hatred cannot drive out hatred only love can. ” Come on guys go out there and just share your love because it's much more astronomically immense and more vigorous than you imagine. Authentically Albert Einstein said “love is the greatest teacher”. God has blurred our lips because of our languages but he fixates on our heart. Love takes us beyond your resoluteness and there is always hope if there  is genuine love. Just love selflessly and it would return one or the other day. We may all get together endeavoring to define it, but it's just an experience we can have because defining it is just imposes. Keep  loving yourself and your circumventions as one or the other day it will return.

by 

akash bhatt