Monday, August 30, 2010

Galaxy Drive-In

My first drive-in theater experience happened last weekend at "Galaxy Drive-In" in Ennis, Texas. Had a good time playing mini golf (first time too) and then watching "Takers" movie. You will have a good time here if you have a good company, especially kids will love it.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

A sweetest love letter


"Leland, do you like me or love me? Circle one. I love you. Write back please. Love Jana. I love you Jana but don't tell anybody or they will tease me. Love Lee. The Great".

Fourth graders Jana Glasgow and Leland Elliott (circled at left) shared this exchange in 1973. “He was my first love,” Jana says. “Whenever we watched a film in school, we held hands under the desk in the dark!”


Courtesy: Readers Digest.

This I consider is the most sweetest, cutest and an adorable love letter I have ever come across in my life. I fell in love with it the moment I saw that in the book. Cutest puppy love.

For those million Janas and Lees out there, love can't be better without such sweetness so be chweet and make sure you circle "love".

Friday, August 20, 2010

A moment of surprise

Last year this day seemed more fun, thrill driven, happy, emotional and also a surprise moment. It was as though everything bundled into one package and delivered perfectly. I visited my native place on this day after more than a year and surprised everyone. It was a sweet surprise for everyone back there. It's nice to think of all that moment right now. Kind of funny and weird as well.

Last year, just two days before I called my Grand Ma (before my flight time) to inform her that I am going for a trip to a nearby place and I wont be calling her for couple of days (well, my day begins by talking with her no matter what) she was like damn sweet (as always) on that day wishing me to have a safe trip not knowing that she would be seeing me within two days time. For me it was like first of kind and the adventure started. Oops! I forgot to include another person in this adventure, my brother (someone who's so used to all these things, all his life). For many a time I thought I can't make it happen and felt I am not doing this and I wanted to break the surprise but it was my brother who convinced me to make it happen. And yes, it was worth it.

The flight journey seemed endless and it was unacceptably tiring for me. Eventually, I landed, met my brother and talked endlessly all night. When we headed home, we both were so excited to see our grand ma's reaction who least expected me on that morning. And when I stood in front of her with all smiles like a mischievous kid, I hugged and kissed her and that was the moment I will always cherish in my life. She was so happy and thrilled to see me on that day. Few were worried about this whole surprise thing that it might shock her because of her old age but she seemed undisturbed. Well, surprisingly that kind of shock didn't come from my granny but instead it came from my cousin sister who's just thirty plus lady. The moment she saw me she was shocked, cried, gasped, hugged me and was uncontrollable for a moment. I was bit scared to watch her and then we all made her to relax a little bit. She's the most innocent person ever on earth. My sweetest sister.

With a tiring flight journey and also Swine flu threat around the world at that time, this surprise visit was well planned, executed and was a huge success in my family. Everyone were thrilled and I am so happy about it. All credit goes to my hubby and my brother. And to all others thanks a lot for the love and care which means a lot to me. Those surprise faces are kind of funny, sweet and emotional to think about it now and forever.

Someday I would love to see such surprise faces yet again!

Friday, August 13, 2010

Dreams, Aspiration and a Vision

Here is an example of all the three. Rohan Shravan, Founder and CEO of Notion Ink. He came from a middle class Indian family and graduated in Mechanical Engineering in Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. As a kid he always dreamed of becoming a person of high caliber and achieving things, be it dreaming of becoming an Astronaut to becoming a Prime Minister of India, his dreams evolved day by day. Eventually he landed in his own world of creating a Tablet Computer (which he developed for the past three years) and is now considered a close competitor to Apple ipad. At the age of 25, he is now the CEO of Notion Ink, which is a start up company that designs tablet computers. And Rohan Shravan is the creator of Adam Tablet, an Android powered Tablet PC.

Here is a video of him explaining about the specifications of his Adam tablet:



The Adam PC was first introduced to the public in Barcelona at the Consumer Electronics Show and at the Mobile World Congress and is now believed to be hitting the market during November 2010. Here is Mr. Rohan's answer to a question asked in Economic Times in March 2010:

"Your product has not only put Notion Ink on the world map, but has also made people recognize India as a innovation destination. What are your views?
Frankly speaking I never looked at Notion Ink as an Indian firm until people made me realize this. I wanted to create a global entity and I believe we have achieved that a little bit. It's time we think beyond our boundaries. It's time we beat the West and let the East rise."

Have a look at his Adam tablet:



I wish Mr. Rohan and his team a great success. Lets hope his Adam gives a tough fight against all the tablet PCs (which is a new trend in gadget world). Kudos to his innovation. May the world see lots and lots of talent in the years to come.

To you my readers, if you have a dream don't ignore it for whatever reason it could be. Keep working on it. And remember Paulo Coelho's words, "when you want something, all the universe conspires to help you achieve it." I am sure the road is not too far to achieve what you deserve. Never settle down for less than your dreams. May you have a dream, aspiration and a vision to achieve great things in life. Good luck.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

The Last lecture

Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, was a person who not only believed in his own dreams but also inspired many students to have a dream and a vision of their own. Unfortunately with the cruel fate of life, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and with minimum days to survive, he believed he wanted to let go of his and his family's agony for one moment and wanted to deliver his last lecture in front of his college audience. He decided that the title of his last lecture would be "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams". On September 18, 2007 he stepped in front of his audience and gave a stunning lecture with such fascination and humor, which later became a popular video on the Internet. And on July 25, 2008 he passed away losing his battle to his disease saddening every one around him but inspiring many to fight against the disease.

I happen to watch his last lecture lately and I felt his high level of courage despite his life in jeopardy. I am not sure how many people would be willing to throw their agony given this kind of situation and come out with the courage to fight against fate. People like Randy are going to be very rare ones. I also read his book "The last lecture" based on his speech. Here is a man who's literally dying and he plans meticulously for himself, for his wife and for their three children. As in his last lecture and in his book, he explains about his parents who showed the path to dream and make it happen in real life. He had an exceptionally wonderful parents who believed in his ability and molded him into a right person. He explains how he dreamed of big things as a kid and how he fulfilled one after another when he grew older. He was blessed with a wonderful family and he made sure his kids will get to know about their dad through this last lecture in future. His last lecture is going to be an admiring, inspiring, super positive and emotional lecture of the modern time. It reminds me of a popular saying, "Love as if you want to be loved by someone and live as if you are going to die tomorrow."

If you haven't heard about him, may be you should get to know who he was. You will be pleased for that. I always believe that there is something you could learn from every single person you encounter with. I am sure with Mr. Randy you will realize the importance of dreaming big. His courage, energy, positive attitude and passion to thrive will boost your morality.

Would love to quote few words from his last lecture:

"A Parent's job is to encourage kids to develop a joy for life and a great urge to follow their own dreams. The best we can do is to help them develop a personal set of tools for the task."

And for his own kids he continues "And given that I won't be there, I want to make this clear : Kids, don't try to figure out what I wanted you to become. I want you to become what 'you' want to become."

Though he is no more today, I am pretty sure his legacy will continue to inspire us forever. May his soul rest in peace.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Eat Pray Love

A book written by Elizabeth Gilbert. The first time I heard about her was through her wonderful speech in Ted.com. She spoke on the topic "Nurturing Creativity". Realizing her amazing speech on that topic I kind of searched her profile and ended up knowing that her book Eat Pray Love is going to be made as a movie and the lead actor is going to be Julia Roberts (Wow! This was exactly my reaction at first place. My all time favorite actress). Thanks to Google wherein I could search everything and then I happened to watch the teaser of this upcoming movie. I fell in love with it and wanted desperately to read the book before the movie got released on thirteenth of this month. But it was so unfortunate that I could not able to get the book from the library right away, so I waited. Now that I got the book, already read, I would love to share about it here.

Eat Pray Love, One woman's search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia. This journey which she's going to narrate is her real life travel experience in these three countries. Before her story begins, she quotes Sheryl Louise Moller's words "Tell the truth, tell the truth, tell the truth"(which I believe in modern time is a Crime). From then, She narrates her hard time of solving her failed marriage and also a broken relationship with another person. She then gets the courage to fight and makes up her mind to travel to her most destined lands which not only does her healing process, but also throws light on various aspects of her life by finding peace, finding herself, resolving her unanswered prayers and questions and also the courage to fall in love all over again. Her unforgettable journey (in a particular year) to Italy for pleasure, India for devotion and Indonesia for balancing both pleasure and devotion.

This is one among the rare books, where the author is ready to break all the cliches of not dramatizing any bit any time. Her narration was so simple and honest process which she went through during her journey. I really really loved her sense of humor, which was very nicely placed at times and that will surely induce the reader to enjoy her narration. I was bowled over by her honesty and truth of narrating every bit she went through in her journey. From a person of a most heart breaking emotion turmoil to an amazingly new person of peace and love, a kind of transformation she was shown by some beautiful souls through her journey, I feel extremely envious on her. The kind of people she get to know, kind of advises they shower upon her, kind of love and care she gets which are so pure and unconditional, only those rare immaculate people makes this world a beautiful place.

Needless to say there are also innumerable monsters who will try to engage you in a worldly game, and before you realize they would have ran into you and ripped open your heart, crushed it, tare down the last beat of it and before you could avoid, they must have disappeared into their world leaving you behind an uncontrollable pain and despair. Beware of those monsters in your life. All I wish forever would be love and peace and these are the two words often misused in modern times. To you my readers, remember one thing in life, You need to be with a person who really deserves you and your love.

As put down by Elizabeth Gilbert herself, "Don't be afraid, Don't be daunted, Just do your job. Continue to show up your peace of it, whatever that might be. If your job is to dance, do your dance. Let your destiny take care of the rest."

I really loved this book and all I am so excited now is about the forthcoming movie Eat Pray Love which is going to be released by next week. And I am looking forward to watch Julia Robert's performance in this role. Have a look at the teaser below.

Way to go Liz! May you find more places, people, peace, love, courage and reasons to write.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Nostradamus

This is the man who comes into limelight whenever there is a big news happening or happened in the world. Be it September 11th catastrophe, Iraq war, Afghan war or news related to world's highly acclaimed people, or even the news of when the world is going to end. There are lot of books circling around time to time telling us about the predictions for the future written by this person. Well, yes I remember once (more than a decade back) reading a book about him but I hardly understood the way it was written, eventually I gave up reading it at that time.

Just like a spark I got interest in reading about him and the first thing I did was hit the library. Seriously I love the way I get books on anything and everything under the sun here. I took some six books written about him by various authors (Just a random pick by me) and here I am reading about this man, but to my surprise I found each one describing different predictions. Believe it or not most of the predictions are for some insane publicity. Most of which are created just in the spur of the moment and those are nothing to do with Nostradamus.

Nostradamus was a medical professional, astrologer and also a highly talented person who had an incredible talent of foreseeing the future. It was by his own interest and also encouraged by his grand dad, he became an astrologer. Later he started writing quatrains (a stanza consists of four lines). It was through this quatrains he started producing Almanacs (detailed events or predictions). He published these almanacs every year, sometimes twice or thrice each year, until he passed in 1566 at the age of 62.

During his time, many people tried to seek information through him for their life or about the place or for their kingdom and there were some royal people who kept him in high esteem for his predictions. And there were also few who badly criticized him for his predictions and called him names as they thought he's manipulating with his future predictions.

Here is a book named "The Further Prophecies Of Nostradamus 1985 and Beyond" by Erika Cheetham. The author was an Oxford scholar who had researched Nostradamus's life and work for many years. In her book she lets us know her research on his quatrains and almost comes up with every single important event he predicted that had happened in the past. Be it from Napoleon, Hitler, Mussolini, Hiroshima and Nagasaki disaster, World war II, death of John Paul I, assassination of John .F. Kennedy, Freedom of India and partition, etc. Interestingly, many of these were never predicted by Nostradamus. Mrs. Cheetham misread his quatrains and delivered it in her book.

"Fueling the September 11 frenzy, which was intensified by the mostly uncritical media attention, was of course an outright lie, in the form of the undoubtedly deliberate adulterations of verses of the prophecies by persons unknown."

The above words are taken from the book "Nostradamus - The Man Behind the Prophecies" a biography by Ian Wilson. In his book Mr. Wilson quotes verses from English Jesuit scholar Father Herbert Thurston as some of Nostradamus's predictions didn't materialize and turned out to be plain wrong. In Thurston's words:

"Nostradamus provided an ingenious system of divination in which the misses can never be recorded and only the hits come to the surface."

Mr. Wilson ends his books by these words: Nostradamus in his final verses of the prophecies, he solemnly predicted: "As time elapses after my death, my writings will have more weight than during my lifetime." No one, whatever their views on Nostradamus, can deny that he was right on that one.

Here is an example of double predictions explained in the book "The Secrets Of Nostradamus" by David Ovason.

"Beast, wild with hunger, swim across rivers,
The greater part of the field will be against the Hister,
The great one will be dragged in an iron cage,
When the German child will see the Rhine."

Many predicted the above verse to be the fate of Adolf Hitler but Nostradamus referred the word "Hister" to the longest river in European union, River Danube. Similarly there are various examples such as Royal divorce of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, Facts about UFO (Unidentified Objects) and so many other misinterpreted verses which are explained by Mr. Ovason. He also added that Nostradamus himself admitted that he wrote his quatrains in a strange language, a Scabreux language, as he called it, which is now called as Green language. This is the language which teaches the mystery of things and unveils the most hidden truths, and it is also known as Language of Birds. Even for those who are efficient in the research of this language find it hard to understand the quatrains of Nostradamus. So beware of the innumerable books which carry his modern day predictions, most of it are untrue.

"The walls will be reduced from brick to marble,
Seven and fifty peaceful years,
Joy to humans, renewed the aqueduct,
Health, great fruit, joy and sweet times."

by this above quatrain Mr. Ovason admits that "it is notoriously difficult to interpret a Nostradamus Quatrain which deals with futurity, yet we feel on secure ground in this interpretation of Quatrain X.89 as referring to a period of peace, lasting 57 years and starting in 2020."

May the world be in peace for now and forever. God bless.