Another great thought from a very thoughtful person. I do not know who wrote this. I do know who sent this.
May God grant him the happiness.
FORREST GUMP GOES TO HEAVEN
The day finally arrived. Forrest Gump dies and goes to Heaven. He is at the Pearly Gates, met by St. Peter himself. However, the gates are closed, and Forrest approaches the gatekeeper.
St. Peter said, 'Well, Forrest, it is certainly good to see you. We have heard a lot about you. I must tell you, though, that the place is filling up fast, and we have been administering
an entrance examination for everyone. The test is short, but you have to pass it before you can get into Heaven.'
Forrest responds, 'It sure is good to be here, St. Peter, sir. But nobody ever told me about any entrance exam. I sure hope that the test ain't too hard.
Life was a big enough test as it was.'
St. Peter continued, 'Yes, I know, Forrest, but the test is only three questions.
First:
What two days of the week begin with the letter T?
Second:
How many seconds are there in a year?
Third:
What is God's first name?'
Forrest leaves to think the questions over. He return s the next day and sees St. Peter, who waves him up, and says, 'Now that you have had a chance to think the questions over, tell me your answers'
Forrest replied, 'Well, the first one -- which two days in the week begins with the letter 'T'?
Shucks, that one is easy. That would be Today and Tomorrow.'
The Saint's eyes opened wide and he exclaimed, 'Forrest, that is not what I was thinking, but you do have a point, and I guess I did not specify, so I will give you credit for that answer. How about the next one?' asked St. Peter.
'How many seconds in a year?
Now that one is harder,' replied Forrest, but I thunk and thunk about that, and I guess the only answer can be twelve.'
Astounded, St. Peter said, 'Twelve?
Twelve? Forrest, how in Heaven's name could you come up with twelve seconds in a year?'
Forrest replied, 'Shucks, there's got to be twelve: January 2nd, February 2nd, March 2nd... '
'Hold it,' interrupts St. Peter. 'I see where you are going with this, and I see your point, though that was not quite what I had in mind....but I will have to give you credit for that one, too. Let us go on with the third and final question.
Can you tell me God's first name'?
'Sure,' Forrest replied, 'it's Andy.'
'Andy?' exclaimed an exasperated and frustrated St Peter.
'Ok, I can understand how you came up with your answers to my first two questions, but just how in the world did you come up with the name Andy as the first name of God?'
'Shucks, that was the easiest one of all,' Forrest replied. 'I learnt it from the song, 'ANDY WALKS WITH ME, ANDY TALKS WITH ME, ANDY TELLS ME I AM HIS OWN.'
St. Peter opened the Pearly Gates,
and said: 'Run Forrest, run.'
Give me a sense of humour, Lord.
Give me the ability to understand a clean joke,
To get some humour out of life,
And to pass it on to other folks.
HAPPY HAPPINESS.
A long time and no post to the blog.
Here is a good one with great moral.
Remember thy Neighbour.!
Stand together or fall apart
The huge redwood trees in California are considered to be the tallest trees in the world. Some of them are 300 feet high and more than 2,500 years old. One would think that trees so large would have a tremendous root system reaching down hundreds of feet into the earth. Not true. The redwoods actually have a very shallow root system, but they all intertwine. They don't stand alone, for all the trees support and protect each other. When the storms come or the winds blow, the redwoods stand together.
There is strength in numbers.
To drive home the power of teamwork and sticking together, I sometimes do a visual exercise during my speeches to corporate America, as well as in-house for our salesforce and employees. I hold up a bundle of six pencils and try to break them in the air and then over my knee. The average person can't break the bundle. Then I take one pencil out and snap it in two easily. I point out that if you help each other, you will be like the bundle of pencils. No one can break you apart. But if you are divided among yourselves, you will be broken as easily as a single pencil.
It's a hard lesson for us, but unity consistently produces greater results than individual endeavors. Teamwork divides the effort and multiplies the effect.
In a pulling contest at a county fair, the first place horse ended up moving a sled weighing 4,500 pounds. The second place finisher pulled 4,000 pounds. The owners of the two horses decided to see what these horses could pull together. They hitched them up and found that the team could move 12,000 pounds.
By working separately, the two horses were good for only 8,500 pounds. However, when coupled together, their synergism produced an added 3,500 pounds!
And what about the farmer who grew award-winning corn? Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won a blue ribbon. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it.
The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. "How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?" the reporter asked.
"Why sir," said the farmer, "did you know that the wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn."
June marks my wedding anniversary, so the next story is timely for me. Many years ago in Austria they had a custom that helped villagers size up the future happiness of a newly married couple.
After the wedding in the local church, the village women would escort the bride and groom to a nearby forest and stand them before a large tree. They would then hand the young couple a two-handled bucksaw and ask that they use it to cut the tree down.
The closer the cooperation between the man and wife, the shorter the time it took for the tree to come down. And the older villagers wisely reasoned that, the shorter the time, the happier the young couple would be because they had learned that most valuable of marital lessons—teamwork!
Phil Jackson, the highly successful coach of the Los Angeles Lakers professional basketball team, frequently reads poetry to his players. To inspire his players on the subject of teamwork, he once read the following lines from Kipling's 1895 poem "The Law of the Jungle":
Now this is the Law of the Jungle —
As old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper,
But the Wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk
The Law runneth forward and back —
But the strength of the Pack is the Wolf,
And the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
Moral: Nature is full of examples of teamwork. Teamwork should be part of your nature.
Continuing my Acknowledgement Series.
This is something that my viewers should see.
Five very important lessons to make you think about the way we treat people.
1 - First Important Lesson-CleaningLady.
During my second month of college, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions until I read the last one: 'What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?' Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name?
I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade.
'Absolutely,' said the professor. 'In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say 'hello.'
I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy..
2. - Second Important Lesson - Pickup in the Rain
One night, at 11:30 PM an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride. Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car.
A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960's. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxicab. She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him.
Seven days went by and a knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a giant console color TV was delivered to his home.
A special note was attached. It read: 'Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband's bedside just before he passed away... God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others.'
Sincerely,
Mrs. Nat King Cole.
3 - Third Important Lesson - Always remember those who serve.
In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.
'How much is an ice cream sundae?' he asked.
Fifty cents,' replied the waitress.
The little boy pulled is hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.
'Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?' he inquired.
By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient.
'Thirty-five cents,' she brusquely replied.
The little boy again counted his coins.
'I'll have the plain ice cream,' he said.
The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies.. You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.
4 - Fourth Important Lesson. - The obstacle in Our Path.
In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way. Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand!
Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.
5 - Fifth Important Lesson - Giving when it Counts...
Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare & serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, 'Yes I'll do it if it will save her.'
As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheek. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, 'Will I start to die right away'.
Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her but he was ready to do that
Happy Learning
Hi all,
Just wanted to share something with you guys.....
Yesterday being a Sunday, i decided to pay a visit to India Gate.
A short walk of 20mins and i was there. It was around 5:30PM and there was a huge crowd at the India gate. All around i could see, people were sitting on the lawns around the monument, having fun with their families. There were some shallow water bodies/fountains around the place and young kids were splashing about the place. Vendors ( bhelpuri, candy floss, ice cream, balloons...etc) were having a busy time ,attracting attention and selling their wares. Standing at the India Gate, i could see the outline of the Rastrapati Bhavan against the setting sun. In all, it was a pretty sight...except for....the lawns all around were scattered with trash(empty bottles, all flavours of Ruffles Lays covers with a pose of Saif grinning on them ,paper plates and what not),the water was a greenish colour with some of the earlier mentioned trash floating on it(i mean if fish were in that water they would have jumped out and preferred to end their lives than be in that water or would have mutated into some fearful creatures which we see in some Hollywood movies).
I bought some Bhel Puri,and stood watching the kids splash about in the water. Many people passed me, or came and stood near me and i could overhear their conversations. They were all saying chiiii dekho ye sab kitna ghanda hai(this is so dirty), persuading their kids not to enter the water. But again they were not hesitating to throw whatever trash they had in their hands wherever they were walking.
Cant blame them entirely as there was no proper distribution of dustbins about the place. I could only see some situated far away.
I felt like going upto these individuals and tell them "You are further dirtying up the place .Why cant you put some effort and throw stuff in the dustbins."...You know what response i'll get. Either the facial expression "Who the hell are you. Why dont you mind your own business!" or #!@@#?$^*!(Ghaliya). i could say like that only to my family memebers, friends and people i am acquainted with, and thats why i couldnt stop myself from writing this mail to you people :-)
Its the general human mentality. If the surrounding place is clean like the ITPL lawns, people would hesitate to litter it. They would look for a proper place to dispose stuff. If the place is already littered up, they would just toss the empty bottle or ice cream wrapper into the open without a second thought. In India, we dont have proper waste management, there are no dustbins at public places, and even if there are ,many are often in a bad condition, overflowing to the brim, and have a cow or a dog attached to them, scourging for food. But there is a chance that they will get cleaned up sometime. When we have some unwanted stuff on our hands and we are outside our home/office, we dont hesitate to throw them onto the road/footpath...even simple things like a toffee we just pop the toffee into our mouth and the wrapper onto the road, is it such a heavy thing that we cant pocket the wrapper and dispose it when we reach our home/office and find a dustbin. There is no use of praising foreign lands for their cleanliness and neatness. Unless we put in our bit to keep our surroundings clean whenever we can....things will be just the way they are.
Give it some thought !!
