The Empty Pickle Jar

 

The Empty Pickle Jar

Rice.. Nice!

Peter Rice, an Irish structural engineer who originally studied Aeronautical Engineering but switched to Civil Engineering and designed the roof of the Sydney Opera House which was his first professional assignment! His poetic invention, his ability to turn accepted ideas on their head and his rigorous mathematical and philosophical logic made him one of the most sought-after engineers of our times. Following is the poem by Peter Rice that he supposedly composed in his last days...!

Tonight I know that I will leave

The fight is done

And slowly as I say goodbye

I need to speak

And say my love for close-knit friends.

Support, support was what they gave

They made me live.

To die, not old, cocooned in love

Transferring through a point in time

To somewhere else

A gift we have no right to ask

And it is mine.

My brainwaves span the cool night air

And tap goodbye to friends unseen.

Will they go on and span in time

My after life

I’d like to know...!

Motivation...!

Everybody has a song or poem of his/her own that continues running in the background of all the undertakings and chores. This is the guiding force and destined approach of that particular individual towards life. Find out what is your tune and meanwhile, listen to mine...! And yes, you can borrow it for sharing :)

The Poem of La Mancha -

To dream the impossible dream,

To fight the unbeatable foe,

To bear the unbearable sorrow,

To run where the brave dare not to go,

To love the pure and chest from a far,

To right the unforgivable wrong,

To try when your arms are too weary,

To reach that unreachable star,

This is my quest to follow that star,

No matter how place, no matter how far,

To fight for the right, without questions without pause

To be willing to march into hell for heavenly cause...!

IEMBA...!?!

My Result Sheet for International Executive MBA
in Human Resource Management...!
If you have any doubts or queries about it,
please feel free to contact me for clarification...!?!

Silence...!

There once was a farmer who discovered that he had lost his watch in the barn. It was no ordinary watch because it had sentimental value for him. After searching high and low among the hay for a long while; he gave up and enlisted the help of a group of children playing outside the barn.

He promised them that the person who found it would be rewarded.

Hearing this, the children hurried inside the barn, went through and around the entire stack of hay but still could not find the watch. Just when the farmer was about to give up looking for his watch, a little boy went up to him and asked to be given another chance.

The farmer looked at him and thought, "Why not? After all, this kid looks sincere enough."

So the farmer sent the little boy back in the barn. After a while the little boy came out with the watch in his hand! The farmer was both happy and surprised and so he asked the boy how he succeeded where the rest had failed.

The boy replied, "I did nothing but sit on the ground and listen. In the silence, I heard the ticking of the watch and just looked for it in that direction."

A peaceful mind can think better than a worked up mind. Allow a few minutes of silence to your mind every day, and see, how sharply it helps you to set your life the way you expect it to be...!

Stay tuned and observe sphere of silence...!

Who Knows...!?!

There is a Chinese story of an old farmer who had an old horse for tilling his fields. One day the horse escaped into the hills and, when all the farmer's neighbours sympathised with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied,

"Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows...?"

A week later the horse returned with a herd of wild horses from the hills and this time the neighbours congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was,

"Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows...?"

Then, when the farmer's son was attempted to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this very bad luck. Not the farmer, whose only reaction was,

"Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows...?"

Some weeks later the army marched into the village and forced every able-bodied youth they found there by law to serve in the army. When they saw the farmer's son with his broken leg they let him off. Now was that...

Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows...?

Well, Stay Tuned, Stay Cool and Defer the Judgement...!

Bangkok...!

It's exactly a month I have written here and that was due to my journey abroad as well as around Pune and Mumbai. Last week of January I was in Bangkok for business purpose and had decided to write about the experience on the first available opportunity. The developments starting from Bangkok visit took such a fast track and I was on the roller-coaster so much so that I cannot say that even this is the opportunity I can exploit to write everything I wanted to about Bangkok or Thailand. But today I must write something before I forget everything…!

Well, though it was my first ever journey out of India and on a plane for that matter, I was neither excited nor feeling any high level of enthusiasm. It could be the purpose (business) of the visit or the circumstances and proceedings that led to this expedition or having to go alone (without family I mean) or may be the A-G-E…! Whatever the reason, the flight bored me to hell than indulging me. Again the reasons for this could be the tiring and irritating, even disgusting at some points, processes that are prefixed and suffixed to the actual travel through air and consume much more time (purely unproductive) than the commute. It could be the absolute exorbitant priced, tasteless and fashionable but hardly nutritious foods and beverages you are forced to buy on the airports. Lastly it also could be the cosmetic service you receive from the talking and moving dolls on the plane that never seems to move an inch, except during takeoff and landing, although the Captain claims the altitude of 50,000 feet and 500 km per hour…!

That’s it about the journey but once you set your eyes on the aerial view of Bangkok, the first thing you recognize and intrinsically appreciate is the impeccable planning and thoughtful maintenance of the landscape. And that proves to be just the tip of iceberg when you realize following things, I am listing them only for the constraint of time as each one deserves a separate post otherwise…

1. The infrastructure – roads are meant for travel and rules are not hoarded on roads but engraved in the hearts. No horns, no overtaking, no lane cutting, no jumping over signals. Simple. I know it seems like Alice in wonderland while writing and reading it in India (Particularly in Pune) but that’s the truth I witnessed for almost 5 days.

2. People respect and worship their King, despite of the democracy, as he is the one who always think THAILAND first. His highness not only appears on every crossroad, circle and airport hoardings but also on the currency notes and most importantly, in his people’s hearts. This is a kind of leadership, commitment and selflessness that makes a country great.

3. It’s almost a rare if not nonexistent scene to find anybody speaking in a loud voice, let alone a quarrel in the middle of the road with an audience of say 100 readily available people making uninvited judgments and seeming to provide the fuel in the fire instead of water. These people really understand Buddha, no wonder he is their primary inspiration and deity.

4. Although tourism is their major revenue source and hospitality comes naturally to them, these are most industrious species in the South-east Asia, a tough competition to Chinese and Japanese. The vehicles they use stands as a proof of their rationale and national thinking.

5. Finally, a grave concern that remained unanswered and unattended throughout was their inability to communicate in English. I never regretted so much of not learning any foreign language and had I known this opportunity, I would have definitely learned THAI.

This is it for now… may be will write again soon about Thailand and Bangkok because this land of Buddha had left me speechless, which even Vippasana failed to do…!

Stay tuned and Be A-W-A-R-E…!