I am bud,
fresh and clean,
protected by the sound outside,
waiting for the humming bee,
sweet nectar I provide,
to build its hive,
and into a flower I blossom,
every hue, fragrance, show some,
displaying my beauty to all,
till I shrivel and die,
fall and lie,
for that is the way of the petal,
~ Master Saanj
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
- William Ernest Henley
Do not stand
at my grave and weep
I am not there,
I do not sleep.
I am a thousand
winds that blow.
I am the diamond
glints on snow.
I am the sunlight
On the ripened grain.
I am the gentle
Autumn’s rain.
When you awaken
in the morning hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
of quiet birds in
circled flight.
I am the soft stars
that shine at night.
Do not stand
at my grave and cry.
I am not there.
I did not die.
—Hopi Prayer
Damn it, don’t know how to cook. 
It’s cold…….gets as low as 9° Celcius (not 99). Tough mornings getting out of the bed, the blanket is so warm and cuddly. 
Yippee, 99Celcius had 10,867 hits in March not including bots / crawlers.
Thank you all for your support.
Social Online Networking a not-so new phenomenon that has taken on the world, just as PC and console games have moved on to MMOG with WOW being one of the most popular.
I recently exited FB for it just didn’t make sense, at least for now. On which a colleague exclaimed, “the whole world is on FB”. Well the whole world is on MySpace, Bebo, Twitter, Hi5, Friendster, the whole world was once on Orkut, and after some time something else will crop up and the blinded human zombies will jump to that.
When I joined FB it promised privacy all over and where you could communicate with your own niche circle: close friends, good friends, and relatives in a trusted secure environment.
Unfortunately, the concept was hijacked and turned into whose profile is better or ‘look ma I have 10^n friends’ where n approaches infinity. How can you have xxx friends and maintain privacy! Or what’s your point of being there.
Well, the initial excitement was there and you follow the trend. You wonder whether you are there to showcase your online foot print. People add you but three months down the line you haven’t even scrapped each other.
Talking about privacy, FB by default if you are on similar networks makes your profile fully accessible which I fortunately discovered recently, and realized someone could have been spying on me all along without me knowing. Blame it on me, for my lack of knowledge. But then mastering FB is a challenge on its own as it has hundreds of settings.
I have nothing to hide and could have ‘what the heck let em check’, I could have probably gone to a no network scenario and avoid such occurrence but trust is built on honesty and ethics and not gimmicks. If you want to know something go to the source directly you will know more. But then as they say there is no cure for suspicion!
May be, “I’ll be back”, or as I see it FB is just another fade.
“No matter how bad your day was, how unappreciated you feel, chocolate will always be there for you. It won’t judge, criticise, tell what you should or shouldn’t have done. It will just offer you smooth, rich, sweet, slightly bitter, familiar comfort.”
Quoted from ‘10 Reasons to eat chocolate after dinner’ by Riani de Wet, Friday magazine
When I was in primary there was this hadith that my Islamic studies teacher narrated of the Prophet (Saw) which I cannot recall extensively.
There was an alley that the Prophet (SAW) passed through and every time He did there was an old lady who threw garbage and eggs through the window down onto him. The lady was a non-believer like the many residents of the cities. One day as the Prophet (saw) passed, and noticed on that day there was no garbage thrown onto him went to inquire and found out that the lady was sick that day. The lady was deeply moved by the kindness of the Prophet for she always thought of him as the enemy and embraced Islam.
I hope I haven’t described it incorrectly, I will try to search, verify and correct if necessary.
Coming back to present, likewise sometimes you may not have done something wrong or may have been disregarded, and if you follow the above people today may either think you are stupid, or that they were right all along and that you have now conceded.
Times have changed, society has changed. Everyone wants more and better. Humbleness is out of fashion and best suites the Neanderthal. Career, glamour, rank within you peers is life defining and status quo. However, the higher the climb the larger the fall.
Education is supposed to liberate people from their mental chains yet people carve it as their niche and segregate themselves in the upper strata.
There is no reward without sacrifice. There is no peace without prostration.
keep walking,
keep talking,
you don’t know what’s round the corner,
keep peeping,
the sun will shine,
the moon will dance,
keep trying,
keep flying,
for we all fail,
for we all rise,
from the ashes of the phoenix,
~ Master Saanj
Have you been paid to pay a game? Imagine skipping work to play a game. The past two days have been really enjoying. As part of our (MT) trainings, we had to play this proprietary real-life-simulation game (© 2006 Business Today Simulations Limited) by a consultant firm.
I learnt so much, and it helped understand life and what you want. The game which is realistic starts your life from the point you finished high school and from now you have all the options you can take to achieve the ultimate life.
The elements of successful life are fulfilling each of the following seven sectors to complete the circle of life:
- Work (career)
- Personal Possessions (home, car, investments)
- Health & Leisure (vacations, fitness)
- Culture & Community (religion, charity)
- Relationships (marriage, parents, family, relatives, friends)
- Home Lifestyle (own or rental home)
- Self Development (education, skills, experience, trainings)
In each life cycle you must try to score in each sector to complete the circle of life, and move up the sphere of life of 4 levels. You start at -1, meaning you have none of the above and have to work on them.
The game is designed in six cycle of 3-years, you can work, go to college, invest, buy assets, incur liabilities, expenses, repay loans, and income taxes. It’s all up to you, and your decisions direct your life.
At the end of each cycle you make your own balance sheet and income statement to gauge your net worth, and check whether you are moving up the sphere of life (happiness).
Success in life is measured by your net worth and the level you have attained in the sphere of life.
It took my team at least 9-years (three cycles) to grow in each sector of life and reach first level of sphere of life, albeit with imbalances. Getting a Masters degree, without work experience had us bidding for jobs of Bachelor level and gained no financial leverage in income levels. Teams who studied for a Bachelor in the first cycle, and worked in the second cycle had better paying jobs in the third cycle, and used the income to spend on the life sectors (balanced lives) but had reached their income ceilings until they gained further education. So where do you decide to take the income hit, the early, mid or late cycles? When do you decide to balance your life?
Most people tend to focus a lot on self development (learning) and work (career) at the expense of leisure, relationship, personal possessions and live an imbalance / unfulfilled life in their early cycles. There were no entrepreneurship spirit and all teams had decided to be corporate slaves (employed).
The game has time and money markers, your decisions consume your time markers, some return money (work, investments), some are cash flows (leisure, relationships, community). A perfect life is one in which you are able to spend your time and money wisely and equally between the seven sectors and grow financially.
Time and money and have inverse relationship, you need to strike the perfect harmony. You may have abundant time but no money to execute your plans or you may have lots of money but no time to spend it!
Thinking about it, I wished I had played the game before college, thinking of it, because where I am right now I played the game. Would I have been wiser than or am I wiser now?
