Kaleidoscope

Moved by the quote that I posted yesterday, "A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the "why" for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any "how." ", I googled for its author and ended up learning about Viktor Frankl from Wikipedia.

I find the below information about him to be very interesting. 

During his tenure at the president of the Sozialistische Mittelschüler Österreich, not a single Vienese student committed suicide.

Even while being in the concentrion camp after losing his parents and wife, he persisted in his attempts to cure fellow prisoners from depression and prevented suicides.

His experiences in those camps helped him to arrive at the conclusion that life has a potential meaning despite one being in a painful and dehumanized situation and formed the basis for his logotherapy ( logo - 'greek' - means reason )

He once recommended that the Statue of Liberty on the East coast of the US be complemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West coast, and there are plans to construct such a statue by 2010.

Thanks to Wikipedia for this information and picture. More details about Viktor Frankl and his works can be read from wikipedia.

I long to accomplish a great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble.
The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker. - Helen Keller

Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts,
brave by doing brave acts. - Aristotle

The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing. - Albert Einstein

Hello my readers, who don't leave any comment on my blogs!

        ( This above statement could be very well applicable to only future readers :-)

     How are you all? I am back again here after a trip to a serene place. This poetry dish is not yet distasteful , may be it never can be so for me. I browsed Kahlil Gibran's works again, for his innovative writing on 'Eating and Drinking' had my attention fixate on him.

    This time, I casually browsed one of his prose - work 'Broken Wings'. The first paragraph itself is so captivating and poetic ( Please see below ) that I went on reading....

My neighbors, you remember the dawn of youth with pleasure and regret its passing; but I remember it like a prisoner who recalls the bars and shackles of his jail. You speak of those years between infancy and youth as a golden era free from confinement and cares, but I call those years an era of silent sorrow which dropped as a seed into my heart and grew with it and could find no outlet to the world of Knowledge and wisdom until love came and opened the heart's doors and lighted its corners. Love provided me with a tongue and tears.

what a fantastic implied metaphor  ( Love -> Sun's light that is needed for the seed ). More fantastic is the thought that the seed of sorrow needed to find an outlet  to the world of knowledge and wisdom as opposed to the conventional school of thought of consolation through whatever means!

I think the best writing is one that not only captivates  the reader but also stimulates her/him to make efforts to interpret it. Through this process the reader's interest is kept alive.

Thanks to Kahlil Gibran and to http://leb.net/gibran/ for making this work available. You can read the whole of this work in the website mentioned. Enjoy! 

I fix my appetite on a food that I like for atleast two weeks. Similarly, I searched for a good poem after my last blog on Tagore's.

I came across an interesting poem by Swami Vivekananda, who delivered a moving speech in the Chicago congress of religions on Sep11th 1893.

This is a poem titled "To the fourth of July" , I love the below metaphor in the poem.

The lakes are opening wide in love
Their hundred thousand lotus-eyes
To welcome thee, with all their depth.

Interestingly, I learnt from the website poetseers.org that Vivekanada left his body on the 4th of July 1902. On the 4th of July 1898, when he was travelling with some American disciples in Kashmir he prepared this poem.

The whole poem can be read at http://www.poetseers.org

Thanks to them for this online version of the poetry.Thanks to Vivekananda for the lovely poem.

One morning in the flower garden a blind girl came to offer me a
flower chain in the cover of a lotus leaf.
I put it round my neck, and tears came to my eyes.
I kissed her and said, “You are blind even as the flowers are.
You yourself know not how beautiful is your gift."

This is one of the poems that touched my heart. The verse speaks of the creator, Rabindranath Tagore, who has written many such poems in his life time. I don't find any more words to add to this post.

It is incredible that there is a city where 170 languages are spoken. Definitely that city is the representation of the whole world, I believe.

 It is New York. My heart is jumping when I write this - I hear every "lub dub" as "NewYork NewYork". Yes! of all the cities I visited so far in my life, the most exciting one for me is New York. Other than the dense tall buildings, beautiful neon lights and the proud yet benevolent statue of liberty, which do attract a visitor, I think the life of the city is the people. The diverse pool of people, who speak different languages as their mother tongue, yet interact in interesting English accents, all in motion all the time, with their chin up, with a brisk walk and with lots of aspiration to move in life, form the heart beat of the city.

I think the sky scrappers of New York symbolize this spirit and they stand just not as buildings, but as messengers, ambassadors of this spirit and energy of people to the rest of the world. 

There are diverting factors as well;drugs, crime - like any other city in the world. Sooner, these things will get dusted by the fire of enthusiasm and aspiration of people in New York and everywhere.

I love New York!

Thanks to Wikipedia for the picture. 

I wanted to read something useful in the morning before leaving the home to office. To me, the easiest but a meaningful exercise is to think over quotes of people. The below five quotes, while each is unique and simple, are sure to linger in the hearts of a reader. Thanks to the creators!

A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.

The truth is not for all men, but only for those who seek it.

- Ayn Rand

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems.

There are times when you have to obey a call which is the highest of all, i.e., the voice of conscience even though such obedience may cost many a bitter tear, and even more, separation from friends, from family, from the state to which you may belong, from all that you have held as dear as life itself. For this obedience is the law of our being.

- Gandhi

The only website that I refer everyday is www.google.com, whether I want to find a subject matter that is interesting to blog about, or a news or exchange rate - whatever it is I google.

So, I thought it would be opt to write about google.

Being a person enchanted by trivia I thought that it would be interesting if I post some interesting stuff about google rather than a write up; Here you go;

1. The first search engine by the founders of google ( Larry Page and Sergey Brin )  was named Back Rub

2. Their office in Menlo Park ( 1998 ) had a door with a remote control and included a washer, dryer and a hot tub with a parking space as well. Yes, it was a garage.

3.Larry and Sergey attempted to attract major portal players of those days, but could not do so and finally they started their own company.

4.What does google mean anyways?  Google is a play on the word googol which refers to the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeroes. The founders have creatively reflected their mission to organize the massive data in internet through this term.

Rest , I encourage you all to read at http://www.google.com/corporate/history.html

Thanks to google for what it brings to me everyday, including this article and the picture.

Atleast to my knowledge, the 'then' British East India company officials are not very renowned. Raffles strikes me as an exception in the lot, who is regarded as the founder of Singapore.

On finding several symbols of tribute to Raffles in the Singapore city, I developed my interest to learn more about Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. I found useful information about him from http://www.answers.com/topic/sir-thomas-stamford-raffles . Thanks to them.

Raffles, while working as a colonial administrator of East India Company worked to abolish slavery in his tenure and came up with several reforms. He underwent several hardships including the death of his four children and a charge by East India company towards the end of his life. From reading about him in various sources in internet I could come to the conclusion that he was the visionary in seeing Singapore's potential as a port and one who worked with able men to make that vision a reality.

Some historians say that the credit of founding Singapore goes to Raffles, Farquhar and Crawfurd jointly as the later two worked to implement Raffles' dreams.

Anyhow, I find it to be interesting to learn that such a person existed in the olden days in the East India company.

Thanks to http://www.pbase.com for the picture.

The search engine capabilities of google continue to astonish me.

Today I wanted to find out what the world's oldest business would be; well I googled and came across an interesting article from Business Week from where I learnt about a 1400 year old family operated  business that recently came to an end.

How did the company sustain for so long?  this can be read from Business Week. (http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/apr2007/sb20070416_589621.htm)

Interesting...Isn't it? 

I never knew that Kahlil Gibran, has written about Jesus until I came across http://leb.net/gibran/

When browsing his work on Jesus "Jesus, the son of man" , a verse - a poetic prose on Cyborea, mother of Judas caught my attention.

She says

I loved him and I shall love him forevermore.
If love were in the flesh I would burn it out with hot irons and be at peace. But it is in the soul, unreachable.
And now I would speak no more. Go question another woman more honored than the mother of Judas.
Go to the mother of Jesus. The sword is in her heart also; she will tell you of me, and you will understand.  

The whole work is viewable at the website above mentioned. Thanks to them.

I wanted to write a 'serious' poem and send it for a contest sometime ago. I did, the poem was selected and published in a journal also.

Though now I think there is an error in thought behind this poem, I am happy about this work. A friend of mine, Dana helped correct some of the grammatical and logical errors in this poem. Thanks to her.

Here it goes....

Each day ends with endless load,

On my mind and makes it tired!

The mountain's might and the loverly bird's flight,

The scorching sun and the soothing moon,

The smile of the flowers and the guile of men,

The snake that crawled on a dark night earth,

The people that I have known since my birth,

The warmth of my mother when I was young,

The day I thought I had my wings,

Everything adds and adds to my brain,

Leaving no way and time for me to drain,

The air that I breath might be fresh,

But my memories make me no longer fresh,

My memories gather and form a thick screen,

which blocks me from seeing clearly a scene,

My eyes love to see every little thing,

With my mind ever silent and still like nothing, 

My heart loves to feel every little thing,

With my brain alive and always free.

In a few words by people passing by and who engaged with me in a casual conversation, I learnt about Martin Luther King Junior when I started my work in USA.

I do not exactly remember how I came across, but I did hear his famous speech, "I have a dream" at www.americanrhetoric.com. I was mesmerized just on hearing the voice. Then I had an opportunity to watch that video - Wow! It was thought provoking, energizing and inspiring. 

Then I purchased a copy of his biography and learnt the ordeals that he faced at such an early age of his political life. The unshakeable conviction that he demonstrated towards the non-violent way of fighting for freedom for his people is a fitting tribute to people like Gandhi, Jesus and Buddha alike.

His 'I have a dream' speech is rated as the #1 rhetoric in the Top 100 speeches in www.americanrhetoric.com. The whole speech is available for listening at this site. If you have not heard this before, I strongly urge you to do so. You will just love it!

Thanks to americanrhetoric.com for having this information, speech and the picture attached.

And, freed from all that's earthly vile,
Seem hallowed, pure, and bright,
Like scenes in some enchanted isle
All bathed in liquid light.

As dusky mountains please the eye
When twilight chases day;
As bugle-tones that, passing by,
In distance die away;

These are a few lines from a poem by one of the finest presidents America and the world have seen. I was surprised to find that it was by Lincoln. The simplistic style with fantastic metaphors decorate the whole poem.

The title of the poem is 'My Childhood Home I see again'. This poem can be viewed at http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/poetry.htm

Thanks to the site for the online version of the poem and to the site http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/lincoln-abraham.jpg for the picture of Lincoln.

Lincoln amazes me in many ways and now I have added yet another way by which he amazed me today to my database - my brain.

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