Anand Nataraj

Archive for the ‘Email Forwards’ Category

In ancient Greece (469 – 399 BC), Socrates was widely lauded for his wisdom.

One day the great philosopher came upon an acquaintance who ran up to him excitedly and said,
“Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students?”

Wait a moment,” Socrates replied. “Before you tell me I’d like you to pass a little test.It’s called the Triple Filter Test.”

“Triple filter?”

“That’s right,” Socrates continued. “Before you talk to me about my student let’s take a moment to filter what you’re going to say.
The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?”

“No,” the man said, “actually I just heard about it and…”

“All right,” said Socrates. “So you don’t really know if it’s true or not.
Now let’s try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my student something good?”

“No, on the contrary…”

“So,” Socrates continued, “you want to tell me something bad about him, even though you’re not certain it’s true?”

The man shrugged, a little embarrassed.

Socrates continued. “You may still pass the test though,because there is a  third filter – the filter of Usefulness.
Is what you want to tell me about my student going to be useful to me?”

“No, not really…”

“Well,” concluded Socrates, “if what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good nor even Useful! Why tell it to me at all?”

The man was defeated and ashamed.

This is the reason Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such high esteem.

It also explains why he never found out that Plato (his student) was having an affair with his wife.

Moral: It’s good to gossip sometimes!!!  :)

Once Buddha was walking from one town to another town with a few of his followers.. This was in the initial days. While they were traveling, they
happened to pass a lake. They stopped there and Buddha told one of his disciples, “I am thirsty. Do get me some water from that lake there.”

The disciple walked up to the lake. When he reached it, he noticed that right at that moment, a bullock cart started crossing through the lake. As a result, the water became very muddy, very turbid. The disciple thought, “How can I give this muddy water to Buddha to drink!”

So he came back and told Buddha, “The water in there is very muddy. I don’t think it is fit to drink.” After about half an hour, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back to the lake and get him some water to drink. The disciple obediently went back to the lake.

This time too he found that the lake was muddy. He returned and informed Buddha about the same. After sometime, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back. The disciple reached the lake to find the lake absolutely clean and clear with pure water in it. The mud had settled down and the water above it looked fit to be had. So he collected some water in a pot and brought it to Buddha.

Buddha looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple and said,” See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be…. and the mud settled down on its own – and you got clear water. Your mind is also like that! When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it a little time. It will settle down on its own. You don’t have to put in any effort to calm it down. It will happen. It is effortless.

Once upon a time, there was an island where all the feelings lived: Happiness, Sadness, Knowledge, and all of the others, including Love.

One day it was announced to the feelings that the island would sink, so all constructed boats and left.

Except for Love. Love was the only one who stayed. Love wanted to hold out until the last possible moment. When the island had almost sunk, Love decided to ask for help.

Richness was passing by Love in a grand boat. Love said,”Richness, can you take me with you?” Richness answered, “No, I can’t. There is a lot of gold and silver in my boat. There is no place here for you.”

Love decided to ask Vanity who was also passing by in a beautiful vessel. “Vanity, please help me!”"I can’t help you, Love. You are all wet and might damage my boat,” Vanity answered.

Sadness was close by so Love asked, “Sadness, let me go with you.”"Oh . . . Love, I am so sad that I need to be by myself!”

Happiness passed by Love, too, but she was so happy that she did not even hear when Love called her.

Suddenly, there was a voice, “Come, Love, I will take you.” It was an elder. So blessed and overjoyed, Love even forgot to ask the elder where they were going.

When they arrived at dry land, the elder went her own way. Realising how much was owed the elder, Love asked Knowledge, another elder, “Who Helped me?”"It was Time,” Knowledge answered.

“Time?” asked Love.
“But why did Time help me?” Knowledge smiled with deep wisdom and answered, “Because only Time is capable of understanding how valuable Love is.”

• When a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than to let him keep her.
  David Bissonette
• After marriage, husband and wife become two sides of a coin; they just can’t face each other, but still they stay together.
  Sacha Guitry
• By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll be happy. If you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.
  Socrates
• Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us from achieving them.
  Anonymous
• The great question… which I have not been able to answer… is, “What does a woman want?
  Dumas
• I had some words with my wife, and she had some paragraphs with me.
  Sigmund Freud
• I’ve had bad luck with both my wives. The first one left me, and the second one didn’t.”
  James Holt McGavra
• Two secrets to keep your marriage brimming
  1. Whenever you’re wrong, admit it,
  2. Whenever you’re right, shut up.
  Patrick Murra
• The most effective way to remember your wife’s birthday is to forget it once…
  Nash
• You know what I did before I married? Anything I wanted to.
  Anonymous
• My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met.
  Henny Youngman
• A man inserted an ‘ad’ in the classifieds: “Wife wanted”. Next day he received a hundred letters. They all said the same thing: “You can have mine.”
  Anonymous
• First Guy (proudly): “My wife’s an angel!”Second Guy: “You’re lucky, mine’s still alive.”
  Anonymous

The following is the philosophy of Charles Schultz, the creator of the ‘Peanuts’ comic strip. Try answer the questions, read the e-mail straight through, and you’ll get the point.

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.
2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.
3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America.
4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.
5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.
6. Name the last decade’s worth of World Series winners.

How did you do?

The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners…

Here’s another quiz. See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.
2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult  time.
3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.
4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.
5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.

Easier?

The lesson:

The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care.

The person who painted these pictures wanted to attend the Viannese academy of Fine arts and become an artist, but academy rejected his application.

If he had been accepted by the academy, may be the world history would have been much different …

because,

That applicant’s name was…

ADOLPH HITLER

Now Indian Rupee has a new symbol and this is how it looks. This new symbol which has been shortlisted through a contest run by Finance Ministry of India. You can read about that Rupee design contest here. The basic aim of the new symbol is to provide the Indian rupee international recognition as the country’s economy exerts more influence in the global space, the unique sign will also help isolate the currency from the current abbreviation ‘Rs’ which is used by neighbouring Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The winning designers concept was based on the Tricolour and “arithmetic equivalence”. While the white space between the two horizontal lines gives the impression of the national flag with the Ashok Chakra, the two bold parallel lines stand for ‘equals to’, representing balance in the economy, both within and with other economies of the world. The winning designer is an IIT post-graduate D Udaya Kumar.

Along with the announcement of the result, there have been a number of controversies as well. One of the RTI activist had revealed that the panel took less than 20 seconds to go through each of the design and analyze. This is what the activist revealed according to RTI Documents :

• Non-eligible candidate was shortlisted in top five finalists. As candidate had submitted four designs.
• One finalist was in contact with Finance Ministry and RBI prior to competition.
• Design concept or brief was not put in front of jury along with Indian Rupee symbol design.
• No marks or grades were allotted to selected (2644) candidates design entries, in the process of shortlisting top five finalist design entries.
• Jury had spends less than 20 seconds on each design entries to analyze it .
• Three jury member were absent in two days long meeting dated 29th Sept. and 30th Sept. 2009.
• One jury member from Ministry of Culture was absent on the day of final presentation.
• All seven jury member had never meet in this whole selection process in any given time.
• No records are available with Finance Ministry which could indicate how many total design entries Finance Ministry had received!
• Advertisement was only published in English language.

Keeping aside all the controversies, I am happy that there is a new symbol for Indian Rupee!

COCKROACH is afraid of RAT.
RAT is afraid of CAT.
CAT is afraid of DOG.
DOG is afraid of MAN.
MAN is afraid of his GIRLFRIEND
&
&
GIRLFRND is afraid OF COCKROACH…

1. MOPED is the short term for ‘Motorized Pedaling’.
2. POP MUSIC is ‘Popular Music’ shortened.
3. BUS is the short term for ‘Omnibus’ that means everybody.
4. FORTNIGHT comes from ‘Fourteen Nights’ (Two Weeks).
5. DRAWING ROOM was actually a ‘withdrawing room’ where people withdrew after Dinner. Later the prefix ‘with’ was dropped..
6. NEWS refers to information from Four directions N, E, W and S..
7. AG-MARK, which some products bear, stems from ‘Agricultural Marketing’.
8. JOURNAL is a diary that tells about ‘Journey for a day’ during each Day’s business.
9. QUEUE comes from ‘Queen’s Quest’. Long back a long row of people as waiting to see the Queen. Someone made the comment Queen’s Quest..
10. TIPS come from ‘To Insure Prompt Service’. In olden days to get Prompt service from servants in an inn, travelers used to drop coins in a Box on which was written ‘To Insure Prompt Service’. This gave rise to the custom of Tips.
11. JEEP is a vehicle with unique Gear system. It was invented during World War II (1939-1945). It was named ‘General Purpose Vehicle (GP)’.GP was changed into JEEP later.
12. Coca-Cola was originally green.
13. The most common name in the world is Mohammed..
14. The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.
15. The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.
16. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row ! of the keyboard.
17. Women blink nearly twice as much as men!!
18. You can’t kill yourself by holding your breath.
19. It is impossible to lick your elbow.
20. People say “Bless you” when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.
21. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
22. The “sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick” is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.
23. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history.
    • Spades – King David
    • Clubs – Alexander the Great,
    • Hearts – Charlemagne
    • Diamonds – Julius Caesar.
24. Horse Statue in a Park…
    • If a statue of a person in the park on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.
    • If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle
    • If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
25. What do bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers all have in common? Ans. – All invented by women.
26. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
27. A snail can sleep for three years.
28. All polar bears are left handed.
29. Butterflies taste with their feet.
30. Elephants are the only animals that can’t jump.
31. In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
32. On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.
33. Shakespeare invented the word ‘assassination’ and ‘bump’.
34. Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.
35. The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.
36. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
37. The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.
38. Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over million descendants.
39. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.
40. If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.
41. The cigarette lighter was invented before the matchbox.
42. Most lipstick contains fish scales.