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A Thought for Today-222:

Thinking is the talking of the soul with itself - Plato

Self-Improvement, -52: "How to be charismatic"

Grateful thanks to Dr. Paul Vehorn, ExpertVillage.com and YouTube.

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A Thought for Today-221:

With life I am on the attack, restlessly ferreting out each pleasure, foraging for answers, wringing from it even the pain. I ransack life, hunt it down - Marita Golden

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A Thought for Today-220:

A successful person is one who is well organized, who has purpose in life, who has self-control, who has direction and love in his heart - Arun K.Agarwal, 'Making the Most of Yourself', Hind Pocket Books, New Delhi, Rs.50/-

My Photo Album-40: Suri with NVPs

When Dr.N.V.Parthasaradhy was Head of Electroplating Section, I was working under him as a Junior Lab Assistant. However, within a few months he was transferred to our Chennai Unit as its Head. In the short span of our association, he took a strong liking to me and was helping me in many ways at times of need. His kind and affectionate words always have a healing and soothing effect on me. His kindness and affection mean a lot to me.

I have a feeling that we must have had close association in our previous births also. Otherwise I am unable to explain his love and affection, even after 39 years! It is a proof that our friendship has withstood the test of time, though he has been in Chennai and myself at Karaikudi. And we rarely write. Only recent we have been talking to each other over phone.

Both of us have retired voluntarily - he, long back and myself, during November 2007. During my visit to Chennai during May 2009, I went to his house and paid my respects to him and his betterhalf and received their blessings. I cherish his love and affection, so also the above photographs.

He was an expert scientist in Electroplating and has written a book, published by a reputed international publisher. The book has been very popular with electroplaters. He retired as a Deputy Director.

I trust I have been blessed by the Almighty to have somebody like him as an affectionate well-wisher.I can only pray to the Almighty to bless the NVPs and bestow His grace on them and their family.

A Thought for Today-219:

Life is a long play; it is not the length bu the excellence of the acting that matters - Seneca

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A Thought for Today-218:

Infinite riches are all around you if you will open your mental eyes and behold the treasure house of infinite within you. There is a gold mine within you from which you can extract everything you need to live life gloriously, joyously and abundantly - Dr Joseph Murphy

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A Thought for Today-217:

A person grows by his thoughts, by his actions, by his objectives. We are, as the Buddhist Dhammapada says, just a collection, a layer of our thoughts. So, if we think in a big way and act in a big way, we tend to become big ourselves, as individuals and as a nation - Jawaharlal Nehru

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East Tambaram, Chennai - Canon Powershop A590 camera - Suri

A Thought for Today-216:

The more men dig, the more water flows from sandy springs; the more men learn, the more indeed their wisdom flows - Tirukkural

My Photo Album-39:

My niece Supraja is a talented girl. She has drawn three good pictures for me, which I am posting in this blog, along with her photo. She grows up in a healthy, studious atmosphere, which you can see from the background of her photo.

Supraja, all the best and keep it up!

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Taken by Suri with his Canon Powershot A590 camera from a running bus,
somewhere near Kanyakumari.

A Thought for Today-215:

Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of men, but from doing something worthwhile - Wilfred T.Grenfell

Focus-2:

Rafe Bartholomew of Harper's Weekly reports that U.S. income inequality is at an historic high (Harper's Weekly, August 18, 2009).

I feel sad that inequalities, especially income inequalities, are growing to alarming proportions all over the world and nobody seems to care about it.

No wonder crime rate is increasing dangerously world over and life has become insecure everywhere.

Thanks to Rafe Bartholomew and Harper's Weekly.

Facts and Figures-58:

Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO of the Blackstone Group, whose salary last year was $702 million, was named the highest paid executive in America.

- Rafe Bartholomew, Harper's Weekly, August 18, 2009

Grateful thanks to Rafe Bartholomew and Harper's Weekly.

A Thought for Today-214:

Epigrams succeed, where epics fail - Persian Proverb

A Thought for Today-213:

We consume our tomorrows fretting about our yesterdays - Persius

A Thought for Today-212:

Those who find happiness within are destined never to lose it; but those who seek it elsewhere are doomed never to find it - Jim Beggs

A Thought for Today-212:

For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness - Evelyn Beilenson

A Thought for Today-211:

I think that there is always a close and intimate relationship between the end we aim at and the means adopted to attain it. Even if the end is right but the means are wrong, it will vitiate the end or divert us in a wrong direction. Means and ends are thus intimately and inextricably connected and cannot be separated. That, indeed, has been the lesson of old taught us by many great men in the past but unfortunately it is seldom remembered. - Jawaharlal Nehru

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Random Thoughts-31: "Sri Jayanthi"

Bhagwan Sri Krishna's birthday is celebrated by Hindus as 'Sri Jayanthi', 'Janmashtami' and 'Gokulashtami'. Generally, eighth day (ashtami) and nineth day(navami) of the lunar month are considered to be inauspicious days. Hindus generally avoid these days for undertaking anything important. The idea is if you start anything important on these days, you will not able to complete them and you may have to do them again and again. However, two major incarnations of Maha Vishnu, Sri Krishna was born on an 'ashtami' and Sri Rama on a 'navami'. Consider this along with the assurance of Sri Krishna in the Gita: "To protect the righteous, to destroy the sinful and to reinstate morals, I am born again and again in every age"; now, you get a special meaning. In every age, the Lord takes birth on this earth to destroy evil and protect dharma.

So Sri Jayanthi is very special. Now-a-days you have not just one KAMSA, but innumerable of them; they are more deadly and dangerous. So naturally we all wish and pray that Sri Krishna takes birth again and destroys all these Kamsas and protects us.

Written on Aug 13, 2009 and posted on Aug.14, 2009.

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Taken by me using my Canon Powershot A590 camera, while travelling by the Karaikudi-Trichy Passenger train, somewhere between Pudukkottai and Trichy.

Random Thoughts-30: "On Advertisements"

Advertisements are mostly a nuisance, a pain in the ... ok, neck. Some advertisements specialize in driving people mad; irritate people. Especially TV advertisements. They are disrupters. One wonders how the advertising business is thriving with all this. Sometimes they repeat the same advertisements three times successively; it is clear they want to brainwash everybody. But personally I feel their effect is seldom the one desired by them.

Advertisements in the print media are comparatively less painful. For TV advertisements assault your ears, eyes and mind at the same time. In the case of print media, at least your ears are spared. The most irritating part of TV ads is the volume goes up automatically. I am grateful to the man who invented the remote control. At the commencement of advertisements, I mute the TV or change the channel and thus have found a way to escape of the onslaught of advertisements.

As for the print media, if you don't like the advertisement, you turn the page. Occasionally you come across some advertisements that are pleasing. I came across some of these during my travel to Chennai by Pallavan Express.

These advertisements had these following features in common: First, they greet you: HAPPY JOURNEY, which is very nice of them. Then they have useful message and sayings like: "No man can stop what god wants to give; No man give what god wants to stop".

These advertisements for kailis, banians and underwear by K.A.S.Jainulabdeen Co, Chennai, deserve appreciation. Other advertisers can emulate them. This is how ads should be: subtle, unobtrusive and less-aggressive. I have snapped one for a sample, which appears above. I am sorry the photo is not up to the mark. But then I am only an amateur photographer, who has to learn a lot.

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My Photo Album-38:

During my visit to Kovilpatti last month, I took some photos of Achu using my Canon Powershot A590 camera, which have been reproduced above.

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A Thought for Today-210:

Those who live nobly, even if in their life they live obscurely, need not fear that they will have lived in vain. Something radiates from their lives, some light that shows the way to their friends, their neighbors, perhaps to long future ages. - Bertrand Russell

Random Thoughts-29: "On Dreams"

Yesterday night I had a stupid dream. I was in a train with my bag and baggage. Next I find myself inside a temple (probably on the railway platform itself or just outside), performing some 'puja' as dictated by the priest there. Then I suddenly remember my bag and baggage in the train and abruptly stop the 'puja' and rush to the platform, only to see the train gone. Frantically I look for a taxi which can help me to catch the train at the next station or so. But no taxi was available. Then I try to think of somebody who could be traveling by the same train so that I can call him over my mobile. This is where the dream got broken. I heaved a sigh of relief on realizing it was all a dream.

I have plenty of stupid dreams like this at night and self-cheating day-dreams during the day. Is there some meaning in all these? Can dreams be interpreted? Of course, you have Freud's 'Interpretation of Dreams'. But the problem is he links every innocuous dream to sex, which is too much for me. (I had at one time Freud's 'Interpretation of Dreams" and 'Sex Theory'. One of my good friends, a practising-Homeopath, relieved me of these, probably thinking they would be more useful to him and hence not bothering to return them.)

If you go through the Homeopathic Repertory, especially Kent's, you will see a lot of references to dreams and delusions. Not that you take these homeopathic remedies to stop the particular dream or dreams; but sometimes they help the homeopath to pinpoint the correct remedy. Unlike Freud, Homeopathy does not try to interpret dreams; it only uses them for selecting the best-suited remedy for the patient.

I hail from a railway family (many of my people were/are connected with the railways) and used to travel by train frequently. In fact, I used to commute to my college by train. Further, when we were in Manamadurai, I used to go to Madurai often, which was just an hour's travel by train. During night travel, I always end up sleeping on the upper berth or the rack above meant for luggage. Probably because of this, I used to have dreams of falling down from the upper berth, only to find that I was lying on firm ground at home. Later when I was studying Homeopathy, I was surprised to find this symptom in the Homeopathic Repertory, which had 'Thuja', a many-sided and deep-acting remedy, for this symptom. On going through the Materia Medica of Thuja, I found I had many Thuja symptoms like 'after-effects of vaccination', 'warts' etc.

Another interesting symptom worth mentioning here is 'dream of snakes"; I know of a case or two where this symptom has helped to find the right remedy and cure the patient. 'Lac Caninum', a medicine made from dog's milk, was the remedy.

So, if you are taking Homeopathy treatment, don't forget to mention your dreams to your physician.

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Taken during a recent visit to Cuddalore using my Canon Powershot A590. Viewed from the overbridge and the bus is coming out of the Cuddalore Bus Stand.

A Thought for Today-209:

There is a giant asleep within everyone. When that giant awakens, miracles happen - Frederick Faust

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