(posted on 11 April 2003)

The urge to be extraordinary is very ordinary. There is nothing extraordinary about it because everybody wants to be extraordinary. To be ordinary is very extraordinary – because who wants to be ordinary?

Web Links for Indian sites: 

Provident Fund: www.epfindia.com, www.epfindia.gov.in, www.epfindia.org 
Indian facts : http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/18000.html   

Web Links : Bill Gates : 

How to become as rich as Bill Gates http://philip.greenspun.com/bg/. 

Bill Gates’ today’s personal wealth http://philip.greenspun.com/WealthClockRealTime, 

Bill gates fan clubs list http://digilander.libero.it/ichnosoft/index.htm 
Bill gates biography http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blbillgates.htm?once=true&

Quotes

UAE: Trains travel will soon be available. Cost of establishment is DHS 100 million for 1 km, in case of Metro train, the cost is DHS 400 million per kilometre. There are no three-wheelers. Police personnel generally do not have a pistol with them. Only one police person comes in one car. Public transportation system is rarely used. Public Address System is not used to sell pickles, to request donations, to announce the visit of any political personality. Golgappa, tikki, kulche, bhatoore, lacche etc not available here. Vegetarian diet is not easily available. India can probably claim to have the largest number of vegetarians in the world. 

Quotations

We wanted to run a workshop on economy, but we ran short of supplies.

Ask a man which way he is going to vote and he will probably tell you. Ask him, however, why, and vagueness is all.

The operation was successful, but the patient died.

Others

To whom we respect:

    - Environment

    - Passerbyes

    - Time

    - Queues

    - Dustbins

    - Resources like water, electricity

    - Laws

'Teenager' and 'umpteen number of times' have the same word in them - teen. Teen means the numbers which have teen in them - thirteen, fourteen, .... nineteen.

Ultimate is last. Penultimate is second last.

Conspiracy of Silence: If you are the victim of a conspiracy of silence, you are convinced often wrongly - that your friends or associates are trying to keep a secret from you. The expression was first used in the 19th century by a British poet named Sir Lewis Morris. In truth he was not very good, but he want to become Poet Laureate. He complained to writer Oscar Wilde that people were jealous of him and so refused to discuss his poetry. 'There is a conspiracy of silence against me. What shall I do?' he asked. Wilde replied, 'Join it'.

Punjabi 

How chinese kids are named : Mr Teesiwala told that ke oh chhat ton gadwi shadd dinde hon ge paudian vitch neeche jaan lai, jehri tune jee nikal pendi hovegi, ohi naam rakh dinde hon ge. 

Ik galll hor dassi teesi ne, ke chane and ganne (sugarcane) de khet ch sup (snake) nee hunda kade.

Thak thak bhajje

bhajj bhajj thakke

ishq tere de raahi nee

jithon bhajje ajj othe hee

ik terian laaparwahi nee

nadi kehndi samunder nu

hassdi vee mein maadi

ve mein rondi vee maadi

tu khda khda jitta ve

mein daud daud haari

masjid de do hujre

uhna naal kee russna

jinna vaanj (without) na pal (moment) gujre

ik paase moh dian tanda

dooje paase majboori

os dard nu kee naan (name) daiaye

mehk jis dee kastoori

World : In start of 2003, Pakistan govt gave advertisement inviting applications for the post of ASI in their police department. They received only 120 applications.

Other facts

White hair are called grey hair in English because English is a polite language which tries to hide unpleasant truths e.g. bitter drinks are called 'dry' and fat people are called 'horizontally challenged'.

Woman is nothing without her worst half (in contrast of better half) because, woman has man in it, female has male in it, madam has adam in it, mrs and mr in it, she has he in it and lady has lad in it. 

Handkerchiefs are not square because if we cut small handkerchiefs in circular shape from a big piece of cloth, some cloth will be wasted. Secondly, stitching circular handkerchiefs is very difficult.

Biodata, resume, curriculum vitae are different. Biodata refers to complete facts of information about a person, whereas resume is a summary and CV a brief account of a person's previous career, usually submitted with an application for a job.

Work should be as per schedule. However, schedule may be changed if required.

05 June 2003

"Cobwebs" refers to a Web page that has not been updated for a long period of time or is obsolete.

English words : 

Intrigue : Carrying on an underhand plot, secret arrangement

Eccentric : Capricious (unpredictive) in behaviour

Chasm : Wide difference in interest or feelings

Rhapsodist : One who rhapsodises (unrestraindly enthusiastic)

Revulsion : Sudden and complete change of feeling

Curate's Egg : Something good only in parts

Mope : (feeling mopish) To yield low spirits, to be sad or listless

Equivocate : golmol baat

Paltry : To use trickery (chhal kapt)

To trifle in talk : Jhanjhat paida karna

Diary : Visited Hisar on 31st May with Vijay ji. In the way, I forgot cellphone at Madan Veg. Restaurant. After going some 15 kilometres, we came to know about that. Took U turn. The restaurant owner was just smiling to see us back and gladly handed over the cell to Vijay ji. Nice fellow. Hisar's temperature was 'the best' in the Haryana. Sometiems kid play with lens by focusing it on hand and the hand feels concentrated hottish. Hisar was just like that as if a big lens has been focused on Hisar and it was feeling the heat. Next day, we visited Karamvir's house. All his family members are very nice persons. On 3rd June, there was a press conference in S.D.College, Barnala over the matter of land dispute. It was address by Sh Jatinder Nath Sharma, Advocate, General Secretary.

Links

To check as to your site is already submitted to which search engines:  http://www.tutorials4u.com/html/webmasters/index.html  

Spiritual

God is the creator. The destroyer. And the protector. He is omnipresent. Omnipotent. Omniscient. He is eternal and infinite. Yet we project Him in stone as a statue. On paper as a painting. We raise huge structures as symbols of His glory. Then we cage and confine Him inside the four walls of a temple. And keep Him under lock and key.

God is everywhere. He belongs to everyone. He is universal. Yet we behave as if we own and possess Him. We fight over Him. As if, He is our property and we are the protectors. We kill in His name. But we do not live for Him.

People of different faiths designate Him differently. Everyone worships Him according to his own perception. It begins at the dawn of the day. Often, with the sounding of big gongs. A chanting of ‘mantras’. With recitation from the Holy Scriptures. On microphones. At full blast. As if volume would send words to Him. With no fear of disturbing anyone. It continues unabated. Till the end of the day. As if, the length is more important than depth. And all this led by an illogical belief in the happening of the improbable.

Once I asked a friend how do you pray? He answered — I go to the temple in the morning. Wash the place. Give the Lord a ceremonial bath. With milk, honey and holy water from the Ganges. Then I put sandal paste on His forehead. I decorate Him with fresh flowers from my garden. Light a lamp. Also incense. Then I pray. By chanting mantras. In His praise. I spend two hours at His feet. Everyday. Throughout the year.

Do we go through all this outward observance to ‘live in right relation to God’? Or to awaken our conscience? To stir the soul? To purify the inner self? But where is the communion with the Creator? Is it not all ritual and nothing spiritual?

Today we go to temples and other places of worship for the same reasons for which we buy insurance policies. We look for bounties and largesse. In the morning we kneel on our knees. To pray. To seek the Lord’s blessings. His mercy. Then we spend the whole day looking for a prey.

Often, we feel repentant on Sunday. For what we did on Saturday and shall do even on Monday. In today’s materialistic world, money is the ‘mantra’. Gold and not God is the goal. Disappointment and discontent are the inevitable result.

The man may look like sin. He should be beautiful within. Character. Conduct. Qualities. These are the real riches. A man’s deeds are his diamonds. These decide the destiny. These are the true treasure. Penitence. Perseverance. Persistence. These pave the path to inner peace and spiritual progress. He who does wrong to a man cannot claim to be doing right before God. Service to man is the sole secret of success. Greed for worldly goods only gives grief. Man who looks for material possessions mostly meets misery.

Let us not worship Him only for the fulfilment of our wants. Let us ‘build a chapel in our breasts’. A temple in our hearts. God is good and great. His delays are not denials. Patience with faith in the divine power, by itself, makes a pious prayer. If we remember Him all the time, He will never forget us at any time. But the thought must come from “the higher endowments of the mind”. It should be a sincere pouring out of the soul. Full of feeling. It must relate to the intellect. And if we are not dumb, God shall not be deaf. What shall move Him? A moment of sincere prayer from the heart? Or hours of shouting? A pure thought from the innermost recesses of the mind is more than any ‘mantra’. A groan. A moan. A soft cry. Shedding a silent tear. All get the God’s ear. Reverence, not rites and rituals, makes a pious prayer.

Mathematical Logic

When the famous mathematician Karl Gauss was a schoolboy of 8 years in Germany, his teacher one day asked the class to add up all the numbers from 1 to 100 and to try to do it in ten minutes. 

Within 30 seconds, Karl put up his hand.

'Yes, Karl?' said his teacher, 'what is it? Didn't you understand the problem? What you....'

'Yes Sir', interrupted Gauss, 'I know and I've got the answer'.

'You've got the answer?' said his teacher, 'but have not even written down the number...'

'There is no need for that, sir,' said the boy, 'You see, Sir, the first number 1, added to the last number 100 gives 101; the second number 2 added to the second last number 99 give 101... So do all other pairs, As there are 50 pairs of 101, all you have to do is multiply 101 by 5 and add zero to get the answer 5050'

The teacher could only gape because the answer was correct.

19 July 2003

English

India is called 'she', because she is considered a motherland.

'Mr Justice' is used (with Mr Prefix) as it is considered personification of law.

Hi and Hello different. Hi is informal and Hello is formal.

Couch potato is TV addict, Mouse Potato is computer addict. The persons who write programs behind the scene are called Basement Programmers. The persons who are busy in writing just programs are called Program Monkey.

TTE : Travellers Ticket Examiner

English language’s largest word which can be typed with left hand: Stewardess

English Words

Working-earning-accumulating

Trot off the neighbourhood auntie to learn drawing.

Superstructure of dreams is laid on this precarious foundation.

Waited interminably.

Spent jittery hours trawling the net

Most torrid moments

Surreal personal tragedy

Galloping telephone bills

Sleazy chat room

He is now on spring-board of his life.

India cannot be penalized for its patience

Badal govt had pushed the civic bodies to the brink of bankruptcy.

Teachers are subjected to capricious codes and brow-beaten by managerial overloads

Quotes

> We cannot live well with it. Or without it either.

> Either back us or sack us (James Callaghan)

> Democracy is a system of self-determination. It is the right to make the wrong choice. (John Patrick)

> Part of the process of becoming an adult is to stop seeing the world in black and white.

> He knows nothing, and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career. (George Bernard Shaw)

> No one should be rich except those understand wealth. (John Wolfgangvon Goethe)

>Your right is to work only,

But never to the fruit thereof,

Let not the fruit of action be your object,

Nor let your attachment be to inaction.

Bhagvad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 47

Punjabi

Chall bulleya otthe challiye

Jithe saare anne

Na koi saadi ramaj pachhane

Na koi saanu manne.

Sales Deptt

Two shoe salesmen from different companies find themselves in a remote part of Africa. The first salesman sends a message back to his Head Office : There is no prospect of any sales. The people do no wear shoes.

The other sales sends back the following message: 'No one wears shoes here. We can dominate the market. Send all the stock you can!'

You can close more business in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you. (Dale Carnegie)

A business was falling and a management consultant was asked to make a survey. He recommended :  'Start advertising and use three media : radio, direct mail and courtesy. The first two will cost money. The third is free, but it is the most important.'

Links

American Census Site : http://www.census.gov/

Wedding Cards / wordings : www.123weddingcards.com 

Tour Links : www.singaporeair.com, www.switzerland.com, http://himachaltourism.nic.in (Tel. 0091-172-708569), www.duniyadekho.com (Cox & Kings site) 

English words:

Rheum - (Nazla)

Rhymester - (Tukbaaz poet)

Scapegrace - Graceless person

Scurry - Flurried haste

Trot - Continuously busy (kept me on the trot)

Troth - Pledge one's word especially in marriage or betrothal (engagement)

Truant - He has been playing truant (child who stays away from school / person who avoids work)

Trite / Hackneyed - Overuse of a phrase

Hackle - Make one's hackles rise (cause one to be angry or indignant)

www.delhimetrorrail.com 

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