Wedding Engagement

Attended a wedding engagement of a son of a colleague and family friend of my wife. His name is Pradeep Alexander and that of the prospective bride Sindhu Rebecca. The engagement was held at Tambaram, a suburb of Chennai (Madras) in Tamil Nadu State in India. The function started off with some prayers and singing of songs. The engagement was a simple affair without much fanfare.

Here are a few pictures taken during the ceremony.

This is a picture of the ceremonial gifts that the prospective bridegroom gives to the prospective bride.

Here are some more pictures taken during the ceremony:

The prospective bridegroom

The Prospective Bride

The exchange of Bibles

The prospective bridegroom and bride exchanging rings

The ceremony ended with a blessing of the prospective couple a simple, prayer a general blessing of the gathering and dinner.

Quotes

Nothing eventful is happening around me so I'm resorting to some of the odds and ends that I had collected in some of my scrap books. Here are some interesting quotes that I had gathered over the years. You may have come across them some where else but here they are for what they are worth.

The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat. - Jane Wagner

Delete the adjectives and you'll have the facts. - Harper Lee

Asking politicians to give up a source of money is like asking Dracula to forsake blood. - Cal Thomas

We meet aliens everyday who have something to give us. They come in the form of people with different opinions. - William Shatner

The squeaky wheel may get the most oil, but it is also the first to be replaced. - Marilyn vos Savant

Haste is good only in catching fleas. - Alla Yaroshinskaya

Where there is shouting there is no true knowledge. - Leonardo da Vinci

Old people really do have a secret, though. You wanna know what it is? Luck. - Carl Ferguson

No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn. - Hal Borland

Canned laughter indiscriminately robs humour of its subjectiveness. - Ajay Gopalkrishna

It is good to be spontaneous, it is good to be thorough, it is good to have something that inspires you. - Paul McCartney

"Fearless" is living in spite of those things that scare you to death. - Taylor Swift

Never harbour grudges; they sour your stomach and do harm to anyone else. - Robertson Davies

A lot of good things have come out of dreaming. - Arthur Miller

Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance. - Dave Barry

Happy is the man who at the end of his life possesses only what he has given to others. - Armando Fuentes Aguirre

Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll get to enjoy it a second time. - H. Jackson Brown Jr.

If you're willing to fail interestingly, you tend to succeed interestingly. - Edward Albee

Without knowledge, the world is bereft of culture. And so we must be educators and students both. - Roberta Bondar

Your mind is often your own enemy. It can kill you through over-analysis. - Rina Dhaka

If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much. - Donald H. Rumsfeld

Usefulness is not impaired by imperfection. You can drink from a chipped cup. - Greta K. Nagel

It would be interesting to find out what goes on in that moment when someone looks at you and draws all sorts of conclusions. - Malcolm Gladwell

The most difficult thing is to love oneself but unless we do that we can't love others. - Vishal Bhardwaj

The best time to plant an oak tree is 25 years ago. The second best time is today. - James Carville

Never underestimate the capacity of another human being to have exactly the same shortcomings you have. - Leigh Steinberg

 A happy family is but an earlier heaven. - Sir John Bowring

If a problem has no solution, it may not be a problem, but a fact - not to be solved, but to be coped with over time. - Shimon Peres

I you do not know history, you don't know anything. You're a leaf that doesn't know it's part of a tree. - Michael Cruchton

Timeless Wisdom

Some timeless wisdom. Some of them are also Chinese proverbs.

* To attract good fortune, spend a new penny on an old friend, share an old pleasure with a new friend and lift up the heart of a true friend by writing his name on the wings of a dragon.

* He who cannot control agree with his enemies is controlled by them.

* Behind every able man, there are always other able men.

* To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.

* Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.

* If you don't want anyone to know, don't do it.

* He who strikes the first blow admits he's lost the argument.

* He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.

* Don't open a shop unless you like to smile.

* Be the first to the field and the last to the couch.

* A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man perfected without trials.

* A bit of fragrance clings to the hand that gives flowers.

* When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planed them.

* There are two perfectly good men, one dead, and the other unborn.

* If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.

* If you get up one more time than you fall, you will make it through.

* A diamond with a flaw is worth more than a pebble without imperfections.

* One joy shatters a thousand grieves.

* Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.

* Distance tests a horse's strength. Time reveals a person's character.

Some Chinese Proverbs

Some Chinese proverbs from my collection of odds and ends in one of my scrap books.

A thorn defends the rose, harming only those who would steal the blossom.

A single conversation with a wise man is worth a month's of study of books.

The one who pursues revenge should dig two graves.

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

The journey is the reward.

In the midst of great joy, do not promise anyone anything. In the midst of great anger, do not answer anyone's letter.

Beauty is the wisdom of women. Wisdom is the beauty of men.

Quarrelling is like cutting water with a sword.

Respect for one's parents is the highest duty of civil life.

Insanity is doing the same thing in the same way and expecting a different outcome.

He who is not satisfied with himself will grow; he who is not sure of his own correctness will learn many things.

If a man fools me once, shame on him. If he fools me twice shame on me.

A clever person turns great troubles into little ones and little ones into none at all.

He who could foresee affairs three days in advance would be rich for thousands of years.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

When a man is crazy about a woman, only she can cure him.

If you bow at all, bow low.

The Best Type Of Person

A sage presented a prince with a set of three small dolls. The prince was not amused.

"Am I a girl that you give me dolls?" he asked.

"This is a gift for a future king," said the sage. "if you look carefully, you'll see a hole in the ear of each doll."

The sage handed the prince a piece of string and said, "Pass it through the ear of each doll."

The prince picked up the first doll and inserted the string into the ear. It came out from the other ear. The prince then inserted the string into the ear of the second doll. It came out of the mouth. The process was repeated to the third doll. The string did not come out from any part of the doll.

The sage then told the prince that the three dolls represent three kinds of men. The first does not retain anything told to him. The second cannot keep hold of what he hears. He repeats it to everyone else. The third type of doll represents a person who keeps everything that you tell him locked up in himself.

The prince then asked the sage, "Who is the best type of person?"

The sage replied that the best type of person is one who is trustworthy, a man must know when not to listen, when to remain silent and when to speak out.

Breaks and Vacations

Some more odds and ends (quotes) from my scrap book on "Breaks and Vacations".

A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. - Lao Tzu

I have had a holiday and I'd like to take it up professionally. - Kylie Minogue

A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you've been taking. - Earl Wilson

Vacation: Two weeks on the sunny sands - and the rest of the year on the financial rocks. - Sam Ewing

A good holiday is one spent among people whose notion of time are vaguer than yours. - John B. Priestly

Don't skip your vacations and breaks. Spend your breaks meditating, praying or reading. Don't bring your laptop with you on vacation. - Yasmeen Abdur-Rahman

To get away from one's working environment is, in a sense, to get away from one's self; and this is often the chief advantage of travel and change. - Charles Horton Cooley

A holiday gives one a chance to look backward and forward, to reset oneself by an inner compass. - May Sarton

A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in. - Robert Orben

He who returns from a journey is not the same as he who left. - Chinese Proverb

A good vacation is over when you begin to yearn for your work. - Morris Fishbein

So, to prevent fatigue and worry, the first rule is: Rest often. Rest before you get tired. - Dale Carnegie

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed. - Exodus 31:17

Every man who possibly can, should force himself to a holiday of a full month in a year, whether he feels like taking it or not. - William James

If I were a medical man, I should prescribe a holiday to any patient who considered his work important.

After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all other fellows' busy working. - Kenneth Grahame

Holidays in general breed unrealistic expectations. The minute you start wondering, "Is it going to be wonderful enough?" it never will be. - Pepper Schwartz

If all the year were playing holidays, to sport would be as tedious as to work, but when they seldom come, they wish'd for come. - William Shakespeare

Greatness Of A Coach

Some more odds and ends from my scrap book on "The Greatness Of A Coach".

Make sure that team members know they are working with you, not for you. A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment. - John Wooden

My responsibility is leadership, and the minute I get negative that is going to have an influence on my team. - Don Shula

You have no choices about how you lose, but you do have a choice about how you come back and prepare to win again. - Pat Riley

I learn teaching from teachers. I learn golf from golfers. I learn winning from coaches. - Henry Penick

A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are. - Ara Parasheghian

The secret to winning is constant consistent management. - Tom Landry

You get the best efforts from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within. - Bob Nelson

Coaches have to watch for what they do not want to see and tlisten to what they don't want to hear. - John Madden

Overcoaching is the worst thing you can do to a player. - Dean Smith

Probably my best quality as a coach is that I ask a lot of challenging questions and let the person come up with the answers. - Phil Dixon

Leadership, like coaching, is fighting for the hearts and souls of men and getting them to believe in you. You can't coach people unless you love them. - Eddie Robinson

Habits are critical to players. They cannot think and play well at the same time. - Don Meyer

Coaching is nothing more than eliminating mistakes before you get fired. - Lou Holtz

Either love your players or get out of coaching. - Bobby Dodd

Coaches build teams. Parents build players. - Charles Smyth

Coaching does not permit democracy. - Jeff Brown

All coaching is taking a player where he can't take himself. - Bill McCartney

I never see to be amazed at the power of the coaching process... - John Russell

The Purpose of Life

Some more odds and ends (quotes) from my scrap book on the Purpose of life.

I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
- Edward Everett Hale

Nothing contributes so much to tranquilizing the mind as a steady purpose; a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye. - Mary Wollstonecraft

That is happiness; to be dissolved into something completely great - Willa Cather

To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity - Friedrich Nietzsche

All men should strive to learn before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why. - James Thurber

I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain and not to shrink to a grain of sand. Henceforth will I apply all my efforts to become the highest mountain of all and I will strain my potential until it cries for mercy - Og Mandino

You ask: What is the meaning and purpose of life? I can answer with another question: do you think we are wise enough to read God's mind? - Freeman Dyson

Many people have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose - Helen Keller

Keep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over again, and you will grow stronger until you have accomplished a purpose - not the one you began with perhaps, but one you'll be glad to remember. - Anne Sullivan

Our minds are finite, and yet even in these circumstances of finitude we are surrounded by possibilities that are infinite, and the purpose of life is to grasp as much as we can out of that infinitude. - Alfred North Whitehead

Good luck is another name for tenacity of purpose - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Relationships In Life

There are three important relationships in life.

The first and foremost is your relationship with yourself - Intra-relationship.

The second is your relationship with others - Inter-relationship.

The third and the most important one is your relationship with God - Spiritual Relationship.

Friendship Or Love

This is a video that was sent to me by my sister. I'm giving the link. Though it is a bit long to watch it is worth watching. Here is the link:

Http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Yfbchq0xQmQ&vq=medium#t=1

Some Thoughts On "Failure"

When your expectation or that of the world do not match we call it a failure. A child beginning to walk falls after every step and then finally masters the art of walking. Would you call the falling a failure? Are you struggling to walk today and did you fall? Falling prepares you to walk miles at a later date.

Which great man has not fallen before he succeeded? Your life is made up of a lot of events, some of them are failures. Failure in a relationship does not make you a failure. Continue to learn, change and keep going. Do not stop. It is only when you stop then it becomes a failure.

Some Odds And Ends On "Today"

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little at least we didn't get sick, and is we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful. - Buddha

I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it. - Groucho Marx

Today is life, the only life you're sure of. Make the most of today.
Get interested in something. Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto. - Dale Carnegie

Today's opportunities erase yesterday's failures. - Gene Brown

You had better live your best and act your best and think your best today; for today is the sure preparation for tomorrow and all the other tomorrows that follow. - Harriet Martineau

This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. - Psalms 118:24

If you're talking about what you did yesterday, you're not doing much today. - James Andrews

Yesterday is a cancelled check; tomorrow is a promissory note; today is the only cash you have. So spend it wisely. Kay Lyons

The beginning is always today. - Mary Shelly

God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "Thank you?" - William Arthur Ward

Devote today to something so daring; even you can't believe you're doing it. - Oprah Winfrey

Look to this day.
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your
existence.
The bliss of growth,
The glory of action,
The splendour of achievement
Are but experiences of time.
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision;
And today well lived, makes
Yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well therefore to this day.
Such is the salutation to the ever-new dawn!
- Kalidasa

Live today. Yes, live today. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Just today. Inhabit your moments. Don't rent them out to tomorrow. do you know what you're doing when you spend a moment wondering how things are going to turn out? You're cheating yourself out of today. Today is calling to you, trying to get your attention, but you're stuck on tomorrow, and today trickles away like water down a drain. You wake the next morning and that today that you wasted is gone forever. It's now yesterday. Some of those moments may have had wonderful things in store for you, but now you'll never know. - Jerry Spinelli

Some Quotes On Enthusiasm

Knowledge is power and enthusiasm pulls the switch - Steve Droke

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm - Winston Churchill

The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm - Aldous Huxley

Every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world is due to the triumph of enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the mother of effort. Nothing great was achieved without it - Ralph Waldo Emerson

One man has enthusiasm for 30 minutes, another for 30 days, but it is the man who has it for 30 years who makes a success of his life - Edward B Butler

Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eyes, the swin in your gait, the grip of your hand, the irresistible surge of will and energy to ececcute your ideas. You can do anything if you have enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the yeast the akes your hope rise to the stars. With it, there is accomplishment. Without it there are only alibis - Henry Ford

The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of enthusiasm - Thomas J Watson

Every memorable act in the history of the world is a triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it because it gives any challenge or any occupation, no matter how difficult, a new meaning.
without enthusiasm you are doomed to a life of mediocrity, but with it you can accomplish miracles - Og Mandino

Enthusiasm is the sustaining power of all great action - Samuel Smiles

It's faith and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living - Oliver
Wendel Holmes

Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul - Douglas MacArthur

If you are not fired with enthusiasm, u will be fired with enthusiasm - Vince Lombardi

Enthusiasm is contagious. Be a carrier - Susan Rabin

A man can succeed at almost anything fo which he has unlimited enthusiasm -
Charles Schwab

What I do best is share my enthusiasm - Bill Gates

Enthusiasm moves the world - Arthur James Balfour

Petrol Prices

The price of petrol per gallon in Pakistan is $3.73, in Sri Lanka it is $4.35 whereas in India it is $7.20 (Rs. 74.84). Why is there such a vast difference in such nearby countries? The cost of petrol in India is nearly twice that of the other countries except for a few countries with the exception of Turkey where the price is as high as $10.19.

If you want a comparison of the petrol prices of global countries you can look up the site http://kshitij.com/research/petrol.shtml.

Rebuild Afresh

After putting in a lot of time an effort in a job, it is difficult to stop and start all over again.Though a painful job, it is the most appropriate thing to do. In case u decide to go ahead and complete the job with the flaw that u know exists, your conscience will gnaw at you in the future.The effort and time that you have put in hardly counts. The thing that really matters is the result of the effort. In case u realize that the time and effort have been wasted -whether it is a job, a career or a situation in life, it is of no point in carrying on even if the job is nearing completion. It is the time to tear down the whole thing and start afresh.

Some Interesting Oservations

30% of Internet is duplicate - they have either exact content or slightly modified content.

20% of Internet users are from United States.

Asia is showing the greatest percentage growth of Internet traffic. It also has the largest Internet netizens currently.

Highest Internet Penetration is in Australia where it is as much as 50%.

25% of live websites serve adult content.

Weddings

Attended two weddings. One was the daughter of a family friend and was held at Nagerkoil, practically the southernmost tip of India in the State of Tamil Nadu. The bride was a doctor and so was the bridegroom. I am furnishing a picture of the bride together with her parents and my wife and myself. The parents of the bride are to the right of the bride who is in the middle all decked out in a bridal outfit.

The other was the son of my college mate and was held in Madurai right in the middle of Tamil Nadu. I ran out of battery and so I did not get any pictures.

Both the weddings went of splendidly and I met some of my old colleagues from my days of service in the Department of Irrigation. We had some recollections of the past experiences while in service. All of us have retired.