THE SEED

The Seed
Author: Novoneel Chakraborty

Once upon a time, there was a seed and because it was only a seed, nobody cared to notice it. Thus, gripped by a sense of inferiority, the seed gave no importance to his existence.

Then one day, a wind picked him up - randomly or otherwise he didn't know - and threw him mercilessly on an open field under the sweltering sun. He was confused. Why would anything do such a thing? But instead of any copasetic answers, he was provided with rain (in addition to sunlight); sometimes in drizzles and sometimes in torrents.

Meanwhile time flew and years later he saw a traveler sitting by his side. "Thank you God for this. I really needed some rest," he heard the traveler say.
"What are you talking about?" The seed promptly asked. He thought the man was making fun of him. Sure, he had witnessed many people sitting by his side - more so in recent years - but no one ever spoke to him like that.

"Who is this?" The man was startled.
"This is me. The seed."
"The seed?" The man looked at the giant tree. "Are you kidding me? You are no seed. You are a tree. A goliath of a tree!"
"Really?"
"Yes! Why else do you think people come here?"

What do they come here for anyways?"
"To feel your shade! Don't tell me you didn't know you had grown over time."
A moment passed before the traveler's words struck the chord of realization within him.

The seed, now a prolix tree, thought and smiled for the first time in his life. The years of relentless tortures by the sun and the rain finally made sense to him.
"Oh! That means I'm not a tiny-flimsy seed anymore! I wasn't destined to die unnoticed but was actually born to strip people of their lassitude. Wow! Now that's a life worth a thousand gems!"

KEEP BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

There may be days when you get up in the morning and things aren’t the way you had hoped they would be.

That’s when you have to tell yourself that things will get better. There are times when people disappoint you and let you down.

But those are the times when you must remind yourself to trust your own judgments and opinions, to keep your life focused on believing in yourself.
There will be challenges to face and changes to make in your life, and it is up to you to accept them.

Constantly keep yourself headed in the right direction for you. It may not be easy at times, but in those times of struggle you will find a stronger sense of who you are.

So when the days come that are filled with frustration and unexpected responsibilities, remember to believe in yourself and all you want your life to be.
Because the challenges and changes will only help you to find the goals that you know are meant to come true for you.

Keep Believing in Yourself

MISUNDERSTANDING

Misunderstanding
Relationship and Friendship are deepened and strengthened only by open hearted discussions . If open hearted discussions are stopped, guessing and suspicions occupy the place of facts and start deciding everything. Then the relationships get cracked and the friendships are cut off. A story of Vietnam which was read long before flashes to the memory. The story goes on as mentioned below.
A Soldie r and a Girl fall in love and get married . War is declared in three months and the soldier is bound to rush up to the war front. When he departs, his wife is pregnant . Both of them part with great mental torture, as coming back alive after war is not sure. But luckily, the soldier returns successfully after three years . His Wife and Son are eagerly waiting for him at the Airport. The Soldier embrac es his wife and son with great affection. Both the soldier and his wife’s eyes are filled with tears of joy. They come home. His wife goes to the market to purchase some vegetables and other materials to prepare delicious food for her husband. The father and his beloved son are at home. The Soldier questions his son who feels shy and stands away from him, “Why do you refuse to talk to Daddy ?”.
The boy stares at his father with great confusion and says, “You are not my Daddy”. The Soldier asks his son, “ Then who is your daddy ?” . The boy replies, “My mother has said that when she stands, he too will stand, when my mother sits, he too will sit, when mother lies down, he too will lie down with her daily. He is only my daddy ”. The Soldier gets shocked severely . He has a burning sensation in his ears. The wife returns home from the market and notices sudden change in her husband’s behaviour . He refuses to take the food cooked by her. He doesn’t touch her. He avoids even her nearness. After two days the wife gets her heart broken and commits suicide.
On the night of his wife’s death , when he enquires his son, the facts come out to the lime light. One day the innocent boy looked at his mother’s shadow and asked , “Who is this ?”. The mother thought that her son should not feel for the separation of his father. Hence pointing at her shadow she said, “This is only your father”. From that day onwards, the boy started treating the shadow of his mother as his father. Due to the intolerable guilty conciousness and sadness , the soldier gets his heart broken. In this story, after listening to the son’s statement the soldier would have got his doubts clarified by his wife. The wife too would have asked the reason for the sudden change and different behaviour of her husband. Their life would have become joyful if both had talked frankly . The husband hated his wife due to the wrong decision taken on her behaviour. At least the wife would have compelled him to explain the reason for his different attitude and behaviour. Without doing, that she herself put a full stop to her life. A family got smashed . Is it not because of not asking frankly and not talking frankly?
It is quite easy to misunderstand anything and make the same wrong. When we view through the glasses called suspicion, we can find a number of mistakes in anything and everything . Due to this folly, relationships, friendships and happiness happen to be the scape-goat. When you don’t understand anything, ask frankly . If any one seems to be abnormal, ask for the reason frankly. Don’t take a decision of your own. Similarly when you happen to behave differently, explain the reason for the same clearly to others. Don’t be under the impression that they will understand themselves.
When you think that your family members or friends commit mistakes, point out the same strictly to them. Their explanations or reasons may be just ones. Otherwise when mistakes are pointed out by you, there are chances for them to realize their mistakes and correct themselves and they may not commit such mistakes again. Thus creating an opportunity to correct the mistakes then and there is possible only when we speak frankly. If it is not done so, the minute crack gets broadened and finally it leads to separation among the relationship and friendship . So, if you want deep-rooted friendship and relationship to last longer, don’t forget to enchant the following manthras . “ Ask frankly, Speak frankly and Lend your ears to others”. Let today be the sweetest one and the days to come be the happiest in your life . May God bless you .

COURTESY:PRASANNAN , Trichy, Tamil Nadu .

A LESSON ON FACTS OF LIFE

A Lesson on “ F a c t s of L i f e ”

All the students loved that Teacher because he was efficient in making the students understand any difficult lesson through simple examples. Most of his students were great officials in different fields. Many had been abroad and shined like polestars and many were successful business magnets. Though there were many Teachers, the students never showered that much of affection and respect on them as they showered on that particular Teacher. Most of the students had close contact with that teacher alone through Letters and E-mails.

He too loved his students very much. When they attained success, he considered it as the success of his own children and felt happy over it. But only one fact was bothering him. Though his students were the top scorers in different aspects like the higher officiating posts, wealth and honour, he felt that his students were not leading a happy life. He could understand it through the letters and Emails received from his students. He realized that they were leading a problamatic life with great mental torture. In the race of great achievements, his students had lost their happiness.

All of his students decided to honour him on his 70 th birthday. Though he was not interested in such type of functions, he agreed for the same as he could not say anything against the affinity of his students. They had arranged for a very grand feast in a big auditorium on his birth day. The previous day the teacher invited his students to his residence to have a cup of Tea. Most of his students of Local and Foreign countries assembled in his residence the previous day to his birth day. When they saw him, their joy knew no bound. The teacher too welcomed them with great pleasure and had a discussion with them. Then he went to the kitchen and brought hot tea which he had prepared in a big vessel. He pointed at the different kinds of Tumblers kept on the table and requested them to have the Tea by serving themselves.
Many types of Tumblers like Beautiful Glazed Ornamental Tumblers, silver Tumblers, Ordinary Stainless Steel Tumblers, Aluminium Tumblers and plastic tumblers were there on the table. The students noticed all the Tumblers. There was a tough competition among the students to pick-up the costly and beautiful tumblers. Getting the tea served in the tumblers, they started tasting the same. They made a special mention about the wonderful taste of the tea. The teacher said that the high quality tea leaves were specially ordered and got from a Tea Estate and the delicious tea was prepared for his students. Then the teacher said, “My dear Students I have taught a number of Lessons to you in the past years of my service. Now shall I teach you a LESSON ON LIFE .”

All the students with great interest said in one voice, “ Please Teach us Sir ”. The Teacher started saying, “Though there were many kinds of Tumblers, you rushed to pick up the costly tumblers. It is quite natural. The tumblers you picked up are not that much of importance. But the tea you tasted is of more importance because of the taste and quality of it. Similarly your Job, Money, Officiating Posts, Status etc., are like the Tumblers. Your life is like the Tea. The Quality of Tumblers does not determine the quality of the Tea. In the same way, your Job, Money, Officiating Posts, Status etc., do not determine the quality of your life .

Forgeting the above facts, as you competed to pick up the costly and beautiful tumblers, in your life also you compete to get the valuable job, a lot of money, the highest post and status which is appreciated by others. Because of that only you are suffering from mental torture and problems. As you mistake that the quality of life alias tea is determined by the tumblers alias high post, money and status. You get stuck in the net of competitions, jealousy, hurried deeds and greed. When we pay more importance and attention to the appearance, we lose the charm of our life, we fail to enjoy the taste of life. Even after getting a lot of wealth, as your conscience does not realize the fact of life, it is always found to be dissatisfied.”

when the teacher concluded his lecture there was a pin drop silence among the students . Some were staring at him with great surprise. Tears started gathering in the eyes of some students and some of them burst into tears. They all felt that many things that were not seen in darkness could be seen clearly in bright light . They thought that the lesson taught by him on the facts of life was far better than any other lesson taught by him in the early years of his service and no one else except that teacher could teach and implant such a wonderful lesson in a very simple manner. The teacher rose up to the level of Peak Everest in the minds of his students. One of his students started clapping with tears and the next moment the whole house building was rocked by the applause of the students.

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COURTESY: Prasannan.

DIMINISHING RELATIONSHIPS

Diminishing Relationships Please read: It is not a story: what is happening to-day
In our Country, as most of the families have got only one or two, children and as the people have the tendency of getting away from the relatives, relationships are diminishing day-by-day

In a family, there are so many relatives l ike father, mother , Grandfather, Grandmother, elder or younger brothers and sisters, uncle, aunty, brother-in-law, sister-in-law etc.

Whatever may be the functions right from the ear-boring ceremony to girls’ puberty ceremony and marriage ceremony, the custom of the maternal uncle attending the functions with a lot of gift articles to prove the strength of his relationship continues since a very long time.

But now-a-days if there is only one female child in a family, the child does not have the relationship of brother . Therefore when the child grows up and gives birth to a baby after marriage, that baby also will not have the relationship of maternal uncle, aunty etc ., If the same condition exists in the years to come, many of our future generation will not be aware of the important relationships including that of the maternal uncle .

After a few years of marriage, when partition of property is done among brothers, the relationships are also divided. If they go to different places, the children of both the families will not get the opportunity to mingle with father’s or mother’s brothers and sisters.

In those days if any function takes place in a family, the previous day itself all the relatives would assemble and the house would be immersed in great joy.
But now, due to the wide gap between the relatives and shortage of relations, only the friends and colleagues attend the functions only at the specified time. If this trend continues, the future generations will have money but not affinity. They will not be aware of any culture. They will not be aware of the relatives even when they are very near to them. Relationships will vanish. The traces of customs and culture also will get vanished.

Now-a-days, the muller, mortar & pestle etc., have become the exhibits and monuments. They have been replaced by mixies and grinders and the Muller and morter have become out-dated and vanished from the sight of younger generation. The same will happen to the relationships also.

In the past years, people would write letters to their relatives inviting them to the birth day parties , marriage functions, Deepavali, Pongal and Temple Festivals. The letters had life and spirit. But in the present days though we get a No. of E-mails and messages , they all get vanished from our memory in a short period.
As special mentions and enquiries were made in the letters about each and every relative, the bond and affinity got strengthened. People of any place at long distances would attend all kinds of functions with family. During the festival time grand feast would be given to the relatives. Due to that, relationships would appear to be strong ones. Even today, in the level of villages these types of get-together and celebrations are existing .

But the wide-gap between the relationships is found only among the educated people . Even the husband and wife have no time to share their opinions and ideas whole heartedly in the mechanical hurried life.

Most of the people attend the functions of their relatives in hurry after sending their children to school. As they return immediately in a hurry soon after the function is over, details about such people are not known by others. Relationships are not known to children also.

Consid erin g the popul ation o f our count ry, giv ing birth to more numb er of childr en is i mp oss ible. What to do for the revi val of relationships?
At the same time we can teach our younger generations the methods of renewing the existing relationships. I mportance may be given to some matters though they appear to be superstitious ones.

If a brother gets a red Saree for Rs.200 and hands it over to his sister, joy in the families will be multiplied . By this, Relationships will be strengthened. Parents should avoid pointing at overload of the subjects and insisting their children to go only to school. Children should be taken to all kinds of functions of their relatives and the relatives should be introduced with relationships.

In those days, for many generations, fields were undivided and the boundaries remained the same without any change. Magnanimity among people existed to that extent. More importance was given to relationships rather than money. Money was placed behind relationships.

The mental maturity of the people should get developed so as to enable the same condition to prevail. Write letters to all your relatives during the special occasions like birthday , wedding day, success in examinations etc., because only letters have life and spirit.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Let us all take a pledge to strengthen our relationships atleast from today!.

Courtesy: Dinamani, Tamil Daily Newspaper Translated by : Shri C. CHANDRASEKAR, M.A., B.Ed ., Headmaster (Retd), Kendriya Vidyalaya, Trichy

Brought to you by Na.Prasannan, Trichy, Tamilnadu.

LIFES GREAT LESSONS

When we begin to take our failures non-seriously, it means we are ceasing to be afraid of them. It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves”

-- Katherine Mansfield


What are life's greatest lessons? Could it be our failures teach us more than our successes?

What I think this quote is saying, is that the importance of failures in our lives, will only be revealed to us, once we stop looking at them as failures. What we learn from our failures, are usually the greatest lessons in our lives, and we need to open our eyes so we can see that.

It may even be that life lessons learned through what we perceive as our failures, are greater lessons than what we learn from our successes. Most success comes from letting go of our fear of failure, and being willing to take some risks. People who are successful in their lives, are not people who have never failed. They are people who have learned from their mistakes, and pushed ahead past their fears, to get to their successes.

I think the greatest life lesson we can ever learn, is the lesson that we should never give up on our dreams. By reaching for our dreams and our goals in life, we are doing what we were meant to do. When we follow our dreams, we will inevitably make many mistakes along the way, but hopefully we also grow along the way. It is truly the path to your dream that is most important, not whether you actually reach your dream. That is why the true failure is not when you don’t reach your dream, but it’s when you never even try to reach for it.

I’m not sure where I heard this but it goes something like this - It is through your deepest struggles, that you reach for you highest goals. I think what that means, is when we are at our lowest, at what we perceive to be rock-bottom, there is no where else for us to go but up. It is at these times of complete hopelessness, that we consciously choose to either give-up, or to push past our pain and reach for our dreams.

We need to try and remember this, so when we are deep in our own despair over a perceived failure, we can recognize our pain, and see it as an opportunity to reach for our dreams.

A HEART TOUCHING REAL LIFE INCIDENT

Chennai : 25th Sep 2008

1st photo : Jithenthran...

2nd photo is his father and mother...
3rd photo: The doctor didn't even remove the face mask and head cover and coming running right from
the operation theatre

The thing is.... there is a family. Parents are doctors...and they had a son named jithenthran.

On 09/24/2008, he took his father's bike for seeing his friend and while return he met with an accident.

The people who are there know him and admitted him at chengelpattu hospital. Then they informed his parents and they took him to Teynampet Apollo hospital.

There the doctors examined him and said that his brain has lost all his senses and there is no way to give him life. Without controlling the sadness the parents understood the fact and they decided to donate his organs to the people.

First, his eyes were given to Sankara nethralaya, then his kidney was given to Apollo hospital for transplantation and atlast here comes the final everheard miracle. They decided to give his heart to a 6 year old boy who needs it. So they verified and at last found that the boy is struggling for life at Cherians heart foundation, Chennai.

But within 30mins that heart should be transplanted; They need to go 20kms and in Chennai traffic and doubted whether it will happen. Then the doctors called traffic police and asked their help and they prepared the ambulance with A/C. So fastly they removed the heart from their son and kept in an ice box and ran towards the ambulance.

When they came out the boy's father saw that ice box and cried like anything. The doctor who carried tht box ran like anything that he didn't even see the ambulance which is waiting outside and he entered the police car which was waiting. He said to the person to just go to Cherian hospital soon. The person who was standing near the car was the Assistant Commissioner and he without seeing his status and jumped to drivers seat and drove the car with full speed.

Every signal traffic got alert and left way for this car and at last within 15mins the heart was given to the doctors in Cherian hospital and it was transplanted to the small boy. Really heart touching....

Do u know the meaning of the name of the boy who died....

His name is Jithenthran - a person who will steal other's heart..............

Yes , now he has stole everyone's heart.....

Really ... hats off to the parents...

THANKS TO SAANU VAASAVAN FOR FORWARDING THIS HEART TOUCHING MAIL.