Being Humble

I've been thinking why some people are so humble and others never. It does take a little effort from our side when we wish to be humble but but at the end, it does pay off to be humble and kind. These thoughts came to mind when I was observing the behaviors of the judges of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007. How some of them are nice and polite most of the times and others like a volcano waiting to go off.

So then it made me think what makes people humble? May be the way they were raised as children, their experiences in life, their outlook towards life, or the people who surround them in real life, and may be many more things. I wondered whether these people are liked more than their counterparts. I thought so. It is said in our scriptures also, "Vidyaa vinayena shobhate". The closest I could get with translation is "humility beautifies learning". I could not find a word in English that means vidyaa. There is a saying in Gujarati as well "name te sau ne game", means the "humble ones are liked by everyone". As Lucy Ricardo would say, "you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar".

Mind you, being humble might also help with getting someone to do us a favor. This might be selfish thinking, but aren't we all? Reminds me of that book I read by Dale Carnegie. It's called How to Win Friends and Influence People. What a marvelous book! I wish every person got a chance to read it. It would make this world a better place.

Emails in MS Outlook have Gray Background!!

Emails in my MS Outlook have turned gray all of a sudden and I am pulling my hair out because it's very hard to read them now. Finally, after banging my head on wall for some time, I figure it out. It appears that Microsoft came up with this! *jeez* Why do they have to make people's lives harder than they are?

This appears to be happening when the email is formatted as HTML, and not text.

Any message that has any sort of formatting applied to it (fonts, colors, etc.) now appears with the gray background.

Guess why?

I have "Use Windows colors" option unchecked in Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0, and the background color default is gray on there. And that is also affecting e-mail display in Outlook. LOL

Only these guys can be so great to do such thing. OK fine I agree that they made this ridiculous option, but why in the world is default background color set to gray instead of white? Don't you guys ask potential users or real users before implementing new features? *sheesh*

First Day of Summer

The schools would have started back then
All the new students heading to their new classrooms
Students wearing new ironed crisp uniforms and brand new shoes & socks
Students with new bookbags and newly covered books and blank notebooks with personalized name labels
Brand new pencils and compass boxes, yup that's what we used to call them
Smiles on faces and excitement to meet new classmates, new teachers
Only cheers and chirps would be heard from them
Specially after spending a relaxing summer with families and eating ripe mangoes in burning hot weather...

That's how they used to be. Not any more.

There are none of those reminders
So Yahoo guys have to put up a sign on the main page
Announcing it is the first day of summer
A pitiful life, so technical life has become
We have everything except for time
Time for ourselves
Time to take a minute from what we are doing and smell the roses
To look outside the window to see what season it is
To experience those two moments with mother nature
To enjoy those simple pleasures of life that don't ask for money but just a moment from us to give us the world

This is how we welcome summer... today!

June 21, 2007

Irritating Spellers

Doesn't it annoy you when you read people's writing that's full of spelling mistakes (no, I'm not talking about typos here)? It sets my teeth on edge when I read those incorrect spellings.. over and over again. How can a graduate degree holder (mind you, it's English medium and in the USA) not know that spelling of better is better, not batter?? My guess is, they must have been cooking when they were writing the email. It stumps me to know how a person using computer at work on daily basis not know to run a spell check before sending their emails? I wish I can tell them on their face, that when there is no noise, it's called quiet, not quite. And you don't wander how someone is doing... you wonder. Imagine them teaching their kids..

Twinkle twinkle little star
How I "wander" what (or where?) you are...

Now it makes me wonder if at all they paid any attention to spellings when they were growing up. It's painfully funny, when you ask them to describe themselves, these are the people who would call themselves "vary easy going person" LOL! Of course it's easy because they don't care how to spell, they just type the way they say things.
I saw a profile online where the person was interested in meeting new people before being friends with them or go out on a blind date. He said "will meat then tell" let's just hope there are people out there who are actually interested in meating this guy.

Now I need to "gat" (Wish I can tell them "argh! it's gEt!! gEt!! gEt!! do you get it?") some tea to get rid of this headache. Wishing them "bast" of luck! Or rather to people who have to read their emails. :| Too bad uncle mOnocle isn't everywhere!

Quarrelling with Siblings

Reading Melvin Durai's article today reminded me of my childhood. I was just reliving the moments when I was growing up with my sister. Our quarrels were (or should I say are :P) so great... we are famous in the family for them. ;) It also reminded me of the relationships that a person shares with their siblings and actually not just siblings, these kinds of quarrels happen between any set of kids that have grown up together, cousins, friends, neighbors, etc. It is these same people that we share that bond with that eventually becomes part of us when we are all grown up. Sometimes the memories are fresh sometimes only subconscious.

Here's the link to the article: ANOTHER BIRTHDAY PARTY, ANOTHER WAR

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

The countdown continues.. one more month to go till the release of the next installment of HP!
http://movies.yahoo.com/summer-movies/Harry-Potter-Order-of-Phoenix/1808475612

And one more exciting thing - Universal studios at Orlando, FL are opening a theme park specially decidated to Harry Potter!! Too bad the park won't be open until 2009... all good HP stuff comes at a price and tests a lot of your patience. ;)
http://www.universalorlando.com/harrypotter/

Himesh Rosh-Miya

Today I'm in Himesh-bashing mood.

Himesh Reshammiya's gone berserk! or may be he's born with it. ;-) I didn't watch Challenge 2005 so I am not familiar with his history with this kind of behavior but this year he's totally gone bonkers. The guy is always ticked off for one reason or the other, grinding his teeth every time someone thinks differently than him and trying to prove his point to other judges that nothing is more important than roti. Moreover, he has talked about this Vinit guy so much I will have to google him up to find out more but if he says he gave a big break to Vinit, where is this Vinit today? How come we never hear about him? No offense to the kid but this guy ruins the reputation of these potential Singers with his attitude. I thought it was bad to find out he was Gujarati, but wait there's more... what could be worse than this? This sirfira is from Bhavnagar!! *yikes* Why in the world does he always wear a hat? Looks like grumpy's gone baldie too. hehe... Oh and what's up with his pronunciations? It's called genre, not gyonre. Hahahahaha! now that one took the cake. The worst is yet to come... this guy plans to open music schools throughout India. God save Indian music and Indian musicians!

Check out Himesh without a hat! :P

Santosh aka Satisfaction

sarpaaha pibanti pavanam na cha durbalaaste
shushkaihi trunaihi vana gajaa balino bhavanti |
kandaihi phalaihi munivaraaha kshapayanti kaalam
santosha eva purushasya param nidhaanam ||

Translation: Even though the snakes drink (breath) air, they are not weak. The elephants eat dry grass and still are strong. The rishimunis eating roots and fruits for survival. Indeed, satisfaction is a man’s greatest wealth.

I really like this shubhashita because it gives the most valuable lesson of life. Specially the last line of the stanza says it all. We as human beings are always running after one thing or the other without realizing the value of what we have. We blindly just go after physical pleasures of life and do not stop to smell the roses. I have noticed this in myself and also in others around me. Someone talks about food and our mouths start watering. This is the first place to start the work from. The power is within us to destroy that creature inside us that keeps chasing after these physical happiness. The five indriya (sensory faculties) and the indriya nigrah (control over the senses). That is what will help us further in the path of life to reach that eternal destination where we all are seeking to reach some day. What a thought.. to let go of these things around us so that one day we won't have to be sad when it is all gone along with this physical body.

Prayer to Maa Bhavaani

vivaadey vishaadey pramaadey pravaasey
jaley chaanaley parvatey shatrumadhye |
araNye sharaNye sadaa maam prapaahi
gatistvam gatistvam tvamekaa bhavaani ||

Gujarati translation: vivaad ma, vishaad ma, pramaad ma, pravaas ma, jaL ma, agni ma, parvat par, shatruo ni madhya ma ane araNya ma pan hey sharanya! sadaa maaru rakshaN kar (kaaran ke) hey bhavaani! ek maatra tu j maari gati chhe.

Thank you, Urmi & Raunaqbhai for this one!