Operation Duryodhan (don't miss the name!), the latest sting operation conducted by Aaj Tak actually had me bludy laughing. Our politicians have become such a bunch of jokers - imagine taking money for raising questions in Parliament!
And on the Volcker report that landed Natwar Singh in so much trouble, we now learn that former PM Vajpayee and his son-in-law were also involved in those very same Iraqi oil deals! Poor L.K. Advani must be waiting with eager anticipation for that day to come when he will retire from active politics. After all the hungama the BJP created in Parliament over Natwar Singh, for it to be now revealed that their senior-most leader at the time was also involved in the same scam, must be highly embarrassing.
But what to do? We are led by a bunch of bungling idiots ... who waste more time changing the names of our cities than improving the living conditions that prevail in them. Bengaalooruuu it seems! .... Someone please call the Limeys back!
***
I started reading Robin Sharma's Discover Your Destiny with The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari and found it impossible to get past the first chapter because it was so immensely boring - a watery concoction of Richard Bach and what is probably Buddhist/Zen teachings. The title itself had me somewhat confused, and so I looked up the word destiny.
1. The inevitable or necessary fate to which a particular person or thing is destined;
2. A predetermined course of events considered as something beyond human power or control.
Going strictly by the dictionary meaning of the word, it would appear that discovering one's destiny would be a waste of time because there is nothing you can do to change it. Or is he telling us that we can indeed change our destiny? In which case the title of the book is somewhat misleading .... Or perhaps he doesn't believe in destiny at all, I'm not quite sure.
Like Richard said:
“We generate our own environment. We get exactly what we deserve. How can we resent the life we've created for ourselves? Who's to blame, who's to credit, but us? Who can change it, any time we wish, but us?”
I have a feeling that this is exactly what Sharmaji is trying to tell us. Only he felt like saying it in 200 pages!
And who's to say that Richard himself didn't borrow from ancient Buddhist/Zen teachings? Quite likely if you ask me.
***
Reading Manu's post on Tendulkar's record-breaking 35 test centuries got me thinking about what it is that really makes a person great? Is it what they've accumulated for themselves in terms of money, fame and records, or is it how they've utilized that money and fame for the betterment of those less fortunate than themselves.
Take Bill Gates for instance - world's richest man and all that. They say 9 out of 10 of the world's computers are running on his software; and that he's been a bad boy for not giving anybody else more than a very tiny piece of that very big pie. But when I see how much the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is doing, I feel its probably good that Billy's got all the cash and not anybody else. I was reading in the current edition of Outlook magazine that the B&MG Foundation has pumped in so much money into health services in rural India, you'd think our Ministry of Health is being outsourced!
Frankly, I have more respect for Steve Waugh than Sachin or any of our Indian cricketers. When I first heard that he had come down to India to oversee the Udayan project in Calcutta, I simply couldn't believe it. Why would someone want to come here all the way from Sydney to help the children of sex-workers and lepers? He's worked hard for his money - shouldn't he be starting a chain of fancy restaurants, or buying himself a brand new Ferrari and zipping through the streets of Sydney? ... And I'm sure driving one of those mean machines is a lot more fun over there than here in Mumbai.
To me that is what makes a person great. When he uses the fruits of his success for the betterment of somebody other than himself. The rest of them so-called celebrities and superstars, are in my view, just ordinary folk like you and me - doing a job we're paid to do. And if they are just like us, why do we waste our time adulating them?
And on the Volcker report that landed Natwar Singh in so much trouble, we now learn that former PM Vajpayee and his son-in-law were also involved in those very same Iraqi oil deals! Poor L.K. Advani must be waiting with eager anticipation for that day to come when he will retire from active politics. After all the hungama the BJP created in Parliament over Natwar Singh, for it to be now revealed that their senior-most leader at the time was also involved in the same scam, must be highly embarrassing.
But what to do? We are led by a bunch of bungling idiots ... who waste more time changing the names of our cities than improving the living conditions that prevail in them. Bengaalooruuu it seems! .... Someone please call the Limeys back!
***
I started reading Robin Sharma's Discover Your Destiny with The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari and found it impossible to get past the first chapter because it was so immensely boring - a watery concoction of Richard Bach and what is probably Buddhist/Zen teachings. The title itself had me somewhat confused, and so I looked up the word destiny.
1. The inevitable or necessary fate to which a particular person or thing is destined;
2. A predetermined course of events considered as something beyond human power or control.
Going strictly by the dictionary meaning of the word, it would appear that discovering one's destiny would be a waste of time because there is nothing you can do to change it. Or is he telling us that we can indeed change our destiny? In which case the title of the book is somewhat misleading .... Or perhaps he doesn't believe in destiny at all, I'm not quite sure.
Like Richard said:
“We generate our own environment. We get exactly what we deserve. How can we resent the life we've created for ourselves? Who's to blame, who's to credit, but us? Who can change it, any time we wish, but us?”
I have a feeling that this is exactly what Sharmaji is trying to tell us. Only he felt like saying it in 200 pages!
And who's to say that Richard himself didn't borrow from ancient Buddhist/Zen teachings? Quite likely if you ask me.
***
Reading Manu's post on Tendulkar's record-breaking 35 test centuries got me thinking about what it is that really makes a person great? Is it what they've accumulated for themselves in terms of money, fame and records, or is it how they've utilized that money and fame for the betterment of those less fortunate than themselves.
Take Bill Gates for instance - world's richest man and all that. They say 9 out of 10 of the world's computers are running on his software; and that he's been a bad boy for not giving anybody else more than a very tiny piece of that very big pie. But when I see how much the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is doing, I feel its probably good that Billy's got all the cash and not anybody else. I was reading in the current edition of Outlook magazine that the B&MG Foundation has pumped in so much money into health services in rural India, you'd think our Ministry of Health is being outsourced!
Frankly, I have more respect for Steve Waugh than Sachin or any of our Indian cricketers. When I first heard that he had come down to India to oversee the Udayan project in Calcutta, I simply couldn't believe it. Why would someone want to come here all the way from Sydney to help the children of sex-workers and lepers? He's worked hard for his money - shouldn't he be starting a chain of fancy restaurants, or buying himself a brand new Ferrari and zipping through the streets of Sydney? ... And I'm sure driving one of those mean machines is a lot more fun over there than here in Mumbai.
To me that is what makes a person great. When he uses the fruits of his success for the betterment of somebody other than himself. The rest of them so-called celebrities and superstars, are in my view, just ordinary folk like you and me - doing a job we're paid to do. And if they are just like us, why do we waste our time adulating them?
Peace, love and real heroes.
1 comment:
Awsome....
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