Magical Teamwork

Steve Wynn, the founder of Wynn Resort & Casino, shared a story of his family’s vacation in Paris. They were staying at Four Seasons and had ordered breakfast in bed. His daughter only ate a half of a croissant, leaving the other half for later. Wynn and his family left to explore Paris, and upon returning to the hotel room, the pastry was gone. His daughter was disappointed, assuming the housekeeping had got rid of it.

On the telephone, there was a message from the front desk. They said that housekeeping had removed the half croissant from the room, assuming that upon arrival, they would prefer a fresh pastry. So the front desk contacted the kitchen to set aside a croissant, and room service was informed that upon request, they would need to deliver the pastry.

The level of teamwork and communication between different departments in the hotel was simply magical. All participants understood the end result – customer satisfaction. And everyone accepted their role in making the experience fantastic.

It shows that in order to achieve satisfaction on different levels within the organisation, employees should be empowered to be creative, intuitive, thorough, and generous.

Dare to be Different

A carpenter and his apprentices were travelling through the province of Qi in search of building materials. They saw a giant tree; five men all holding hands could not encompass its girth, and its crown reached almost to the clouds.

'Let's not waste our time with this tree,' said the master carpenter. 'It would take us for ever to cut it down. If we wanted to make a ship out of that heavy trunk, the ship would sink. If we tried to use it to build a roof, the walls would have to be specially reinforced.'

The group continued on its way. One of the apprentices remarked:

'Such a big tree and no use to anyone!'

'That's where you're wrong,' said the master carpenter. 'The tree was true to its own destiny. If it had been like all the others, we would have cut it down. But because it had the courage to be different, it will remain alive and strong for a long time yet.'

Don't allow your parrot to die

The story is told of a woman who bought a parrot to keep her company, but she returned it the next day.
“This bird doesn't talk,” she told the owner.
”Does he have a mirror in his cage?”he asked. “Parrots love mirrors. They see their reflection and start conversation
The woman bought a mirror and left. The next day she returned; the bird still wasn't talking.
"How about a ladder? Parrots love ladders. The happy parrot is a talkative parrot
The woman bought a ladder and left. But the next day, she was back.
“Does your parrot have a swing? No? Well, that’s the problem. Once he starts swinging, he’ll talk up a storm
The woman reluctantly bought a swing and left.
When she walked into the store the next day, her countenance had changed.
“The parrot died,” she said.
The pet store owner was shocked.
“I’m so sorry. Tell me, did he ever say anything?” he asked.
“Yes, right before it died,” the woman replied.
“In a weak voice, it asked me, ‘Don’t they sell any food at that pet store?’"
Sometimes we forget what’s really important in life. We get so caught up in things that are good while neglecting the things that are truly necessary.
Take a moment to do a “priority check”, and strive for what is most important today.

How deep is your root?

Once upon a time, there were two neighbors living next to each other. One of them was a retired teacher and another was an insurance agent who had a lot of interest in technology. Both of them had planted different plants in their garden. The retired teacher was giving a small amount of water to his plants and didn’t always give a full attention to them, while the other neighbor interested in technology, had given a lot of water to his plants and looked after them too well.

The retired teacher’s plants were simple but looked good. The insurance agent’s plants were much fuller and greener. One day, during the night, there was a heavy rain and a wind due to a minor storm. Next morning, both of the neighbors came out to inspect the damage to their garden. The neighbor who was an insurance agent saw that his plants came off from the roots and were totally destroyed. But, the retired teacher’s plants were not damaged at all and were standing firm.

The insurance agent neighbor was surprised to see it, he went to the retired teacher and asked, “We both grew the same plants together, I actually looked after my plants better than you did for yours, and even gave them more water. Still, my plants came off from the roots, while yours didn’t. How is that possible?”

The retired teacher smiled and said, “You gave your plants more attention and water, but because of that they didn’t need to work themselves for it. You made it easy for them. While I gave them just an adequate amount of water and let their roots search for more. And, because of that, their roots went deeper and that made their position stronger. That is why my plants survived”.

Moral: This story is about parenting where children are like plants. If everything is given to them, they will not understand the hard work it takes to earn those things. They will not learn to work themselves and respect it. Sometimes it’s best to guide them instead of giving them. Teach them how to walk, but let them follow their path.

Wodden Apples of our Life

There once was a happy monkey wandering the jungle, eating delicious fruit when hungry, and resting when tired. One day he came upon a house, where he saw a bowl of the most beautiful apples. He took one in each hand and ran back into the forest.


He sniffed the apples and smelled nothing. He tried to eat them, but hurt his teeth. They were made of wood, but they were beautiful, and when the other monkeys saw them, he held onto them even tighter.

He admired his new possessions proudly as he wandered the jungle. They glistened red in the sun, and seemed perfect to him. He became so attached to them, that he didn't even notice his hunger at first.

A fruit tree reminded him, but he felt the apples in his hands. He couldn't bear to set them down to reach for the fruit. In fact, he couldn't relax, either, if he was to defend his apples. A proud, but less happy monkey continued to walk along the forest trails.

The apples became heavier, and the poor little monkey thought about leaving them behind. He was tired, hungry, and he couldn't climb trees or collect fruit with his hands full. What if he just let go?

Letting go of such valuable things seemed crazy, but what else could he do? He was so tired. Seeing the next fruit tree, and smelling it's fruit was enough. He dropped the wooden apples and reached up for his meal. He was happy again.

Letting Go Of Wooden Apples…

Like that little monkey, we sometimes carry things that seem too valuable to let go. A man carries an image of himself as "productive" - carries it like a shiny wooden apple. But in reality, his busyness leaves him tired, and hungry for a better life. Still, letting go seems crazy. Even his worries are sacred apples - they prove he's "doing everything he can." He holds onto them compulsively.

This is a hard thing to see. We identify so strongly with our things even, feeling pain when our cars are dented. How much more powerfully do we identify with our beliefs and self-ideas? Yet they don't always feed our souls, do they? And we become tired of defending them.

How else could the story end?

The monkey might be found dead of hunger, under a beautiful tree, with fruit within reach, but still grasping his wooden apples.

I chose to end it with him letting go, because only with open hands can we receive. So be ready to welcome the coming time with open hands and mind!!

Keep the good work going

A man was asked to paint a boat.

He brought with him paint and brushes and began to paint the boat a bright red, as the owner asked him.

While painting, he noticed that there was a small hole in the hull, and quietly repaired it.

When finished painting, he received his money and left.

The next day, the owner of the boat came to the painter and presented him with a nice cheque, much higher than the payment for painting.

The painter was surprised and said "You've already paid me for painting the boat Sir!"

"But this is not for the paint job. It's for having repaired the hole in the boat."

"Ah! But it was such a small service... certainly it's not worth paying me such a high amount for something so insignificant."

"My dear friend, you do not understand. Let me tell you what happened.

When I asked you to paint the boat, I forgot to mention about the hole.

When the boat dried, my kids took the boat and went on a fishing trip.

They did not know that there was a hole. I was not at home at that time.

When I returned and noticed they had taken the boat, I was desperate because I remembered that the boat had a hole.

Imagine my relief and joy when I saw them returning from fishing.

Then, I examined the boat and found that you had repaired the hole! You see, now, what you did? You saved the life of my children! I do not have enough money to pay your 'small' good deed."

So, no matter who, when or how. Just continue to help, sustain, wipe tears, listen attentively and carefully repair all the 'leaks' you find, because you never know when one is in need of us or when God holds a pleasant surprise for us to be helpful and important to someone_.

You may have repaired numerous 'boat holes' along the way... of several people without realizing how many lives you've saved.

So Keep the  Good work ongoing.

What is real Compassion?

Once Buddha was in an assembly when a man walked in looking furious.
 He thought Buddha was doing something wrong. 
He was a restless businessman and he had found that his children were spending hours with
 Buddha when they could have engaged themselves in business at that time, making more and more money.
 He felt that spending four hours of their day seated next to someone whose eyes were always 
closed was incredulous. This was what had upset the businessman.
So, with furiousness walked straight up to Buddha looked him the eye and spat.
 He was so angry, he could not find the words to express them that he merely spat at Buddha.
 Buddha simply smiled. He showed no anger, though the disciples around him were angry. 
They would have liked to react but could not because Buddha was there. 
So, everybody was holding their lips and fists tight. 
After the businessman spat at Buddha and realised his action was not drawing a reaction, simply walked away in a huff.
Buddha did not react or say anything. He just smiled. 
And that was enough to shock the angry man.
 For the first time in his life, the man had met someone who would just smile when he spat on his face.
 That man could not sleep all night and his whole body underwent such a transformation. 
He was shivering, shaking. He felt as if the whole world had turned upside down. 
The next day he went and fell at Buddha’s feet and said, Please forgive me.
 I did not know what I did. To which Buddha replied, I cannot excuse you!
Everyone including the man and Buddha’s disciples were flabbergasted. 
Buddha then explained the reason for his statement. 
He said, Why should I forgive you when you have done nothing wrong.
The businessman looked a little more surprised and told Buddha that it was he who had wronged him
 by spitting on him.
 Buddha simply said, Oh! That person is not there now. 
If I ever meet that person whom you spat on, I will tell him to excuse you.
 To this person who is here, you have done no wrong. 

That is real compassion.

HR Startups

I came across a very beautiful article called "HR Startups"in Economic times.It is very informative as well as inspiring.Sharing the link of that article:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/fresh-breath-of-life-new-hr-startups-trying-to-change-old-ways-of-doing-business/articleshow/55640284.cms

Recent Classification of Human Beings

Today I would like to share the results of recent study about the classification of human beings.

People can be classified into four basic personality types: optimistic, pessimistic, trusting and envious, a new study on human behavior has found.

Envious, is the most common, with 30 percent compared to 20 percent for each of the other three groups, researchers said.

The study, including researchers from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in Spain, analysed the responses of 541 volunteers to hundreds of social dilemmas, with options leading to collaboration or conflict with others, based on individual or collective interests.

"Those involved are asked to participate in pairs, these pairs change, not only in each round, but also each time the game changes," said Anxo Sanchez, one of the authors of the study.

"So, the best option could be to cooperate or, on the other hand, to oppose or betray ..... In this way, we can obtain information about what people do in very different social situations," said Sanchez.

"The results go against certain theories; the one which states that humans act purely rationally for example, and, therefore, they should be taken into consideration in redesigning social and economic policies, as well as those involved in cooperation," said Yamir Moreno, from Universidad de Zaragoza in Spain.

After carrying out this kind of social experiment, the researchers developed a computer algorithm which set out to classify people according to their behaviour.

The algorithm organised 90 percent of people into four groups: the largest group, accounting for 30 percent, being the envious - those who don't actually mind what they achieve, as long as they're better than everyone else; the optimists - who believe that they and their partner will make the best choice for both of them - on 20 percent.

Also on 20 percent were the pessimists - who select the option which they see as the lesser of two evils - and the trusting group - who are born collaborators and who will always cooperate and who do not really mind if they win or lose.

There is a fifth, undefined group, representing 10 percent, which the algorithm is unable to classify in relation to a clear type of behaviour, researchers said.

They noted that this allows them to infer the existence of a wide range of subgroups made up of individuals who do not respond in a determined way to any of the outlined models.

The study was published in the journal Science Advances.

Stochastic Probability Theory

Consider this scenario: In a remote forest, a pregnant deer is about to give birth to a baby. It finds a remote grass field near by a river and slowly goes there thinking it would be safe. As she moves slowly, she gets labor pain…. at the same moment, dark clouds gather around that area and lightning starts a forest fire. Turning left she sees a hunter who is aiming an arrow from a distance. As she tries to move towards right, she spots a hungry lion approaching towards her.

Stochastic Probability Theory - Pregnant Deer Scenario
What can the pregnant deer do ….as she is already under labor pain ?
…
…
…
What do you think will happen ?
Will the deer survive ?
Will it give birth to a fawn ?
Will the fawn survive ? or
Will everything be burnt by the forest fire ?
…
…
…
…

That particular moment ?
…
…
…

Can the deer go left ? – Hunter’s arrow is pointing

Can she go right ? – Hungry male lion approaching

Can she move up ? – Forest fire

Can she move down ? – Fierce river


Answer: She does nothing. She just focuses on giving birth to a new LIFE.

The sequence of events that happens at that fraction of a second (moment) are as follows:

In a spur of MOMENT …a lightning strikes (already it is cloudy ) and blinds the eyes of the Hunter. At that MOMENT, he releases the arrow missing and zipping past the deer. At that MOMENT the arrow hits and injures the lion badly. At that MOMENT, it starts to rain heavily and puts out the forest fire. At that next MOMENT, the deer gives birth to a healthy fawn.

In our life, it’s our MOMENT of CHOICE and we all have to deal with such negative thoughts from all sides always. Some thoughts are so powerful they overpower us and makes us clueless. Let us not decide anything in a hurry. Let’s think of ourselves as the pregnant deer with the ultimate happy ending. Anything can happen in a MOMENT in this life. If you are religious, superstitious, atheist, agnostic… or whatever… you can attribute this MOMENT as divine intervention, faith, sudden luck, chance (serendipity), coincidence… or a simple ‘don’t know’. We all feel the same. But, whatever one may call it, I would see the priority of the deer in that given moment was to giving birth to a baby…. because LIFE IS PRECIOUS.
Hence, whether you are deer or a human, keep that faith and hope within you always.

Are you Planning for the future?

There was a kingdom and the kings were elected once in every five years.

No one wanted to become the king there since they had a custom of leaving each king after his period of five years in a dangerous forest nearby. No one survived in that forest so far.

One man volunteered to become a king. He was enjoying his five years as a king and the day came to set him inside the dangerous forest.

He happily came forward to go to the forest. All others were confused why this man was so happy to get into the forest. One asked him why he is so happy to die. 

The King replayed, "I knew clearly about our custom. So, in the first year, I sent 100 soldiers to kill all the dangerous animals in the forest. In the second year, I sent 500 wood cutters to cut all the trees. In the third years I sent 1000 farmers to turn the forest into a cultivating land. In the fourth year I sent 2000 villagers to build houses there and settle there. In the fifth year I built a palace there. Now, there is a new kingdom is waiting for me. Why should I worry?"..

Anchoring Effect

Today I would like to share some information about something called “Anchoring Effect”.

Anchoring or focalism is a cognitive bias that describes the common human tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered (the "anchor") when making decisions.

In 1974, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman conducted a study on this matter. They asked people to estimate how many African countries were part of the United Nations, but first they spun a wheel of fortune. The wheel was painted with numbers from 0 to 100, but rigged to always land on 10 or 65. When the arrow stopped spinning, they asked the person in the experiment to say if they believed the percentage of countries was higher or lower than the number on the wheel. Next, they asked people to estimate what they thought was the actual percentage. They that found people who landed on 10 in the first half of the experiment guessed around 25 percent of Africa was part of the U.N. Those who landed on 65 said around 45 percent. The subjects had been locked in place by a psychological phenomenon known as the anchoring effect.

The trick here is no one really knew the true answer. They had to guess, yet it didn’t feel like a guess. As far as they knew, the wheel was a random number generator, but it produced something concrete to work from. When they adjusted their estimates, they couldn’t avoid the anchor.

“Anchoring Effect” –Another Experiment:

The anchoring effect can also slip in unannounced. Drazen Prelec and Dan Ariely conducted an experiment at MIT in 2006 where they had students bid on items in a bizarre auction. Ariely explains in his book, Predictably Irrational, that the researchers would hold up a bottle of wine, or a textbook, or a cordless trackball and then describe in detail how awesome it was. Then, each student had to write down the last two digits of their social security number as if it was the price of the item. If the last two digits were 11, then the bottle of wine was priced at $11. If the two numbers were 88, the cordless trackball was $88. After they wrote down the pretend price, they bid. Sure enough, the anchoring effect scrambled their ability to judge the value of the items. People with high social security numbers paid up to 346 percent more than those with low numbers. People with numbers from 80 to 99 paid on average $26 for the trackball, while those with 00 to 19 paid around $9.

The auction experimenters conducted another study in which they asked people to listen to annoying sounds for money. The researchers initially offered either 90 cents or 10 cents for a blast of awful electronic screaming, and then they asked the subjects how much would be the lowest possible price they would need to be paid to listen to the sound again. People who were offered 10 cents said it would take about 33 cents to continue. People offered 90 said it would take 73. They repeated the experiment in other ways, but no matter how they messed with the sounds or the payouts, those who were first offered a low payment consistently agreed to lower amounts than those used to better wages. People who got more money at first were unwilling to accept lower payments later.

The Duck with a Human Mind

I came across a beautiful article called "The Duck with a Human Mind" in internet.I am highly impressed with it and decided to share it in my blog.It reads as follows:

If two ducks get into a fight, it will never lasts long, they will separate and float off in opposite directions. Then each duck will flap its wings vigorously a few times, thus releasing the surplus energy that built up during the fight. After they flap their wings, they float on peacefully, as if nothing had ever happened.

If the duck had a human mind, it would keep the fight alive by thinking, by story-making. This would probably be the duck's story:" I don't believe what he just did. He came to within five inches of me. He thinks he owns this pond. He has no consideration for my private space. I'll never trust him again. Next time he'll try something else just to annoy me. I'm sure he's plotting something already. But I'm not going to stand for this. I'll teach him a lesson he won't forget". And on and on the mind spins its tales, still thinking and talking about it days, months, or years later.

 As far as the body is concerned, the fight is still continuing, and energy it generates in response to all those thoughts is emotion, which in turn generates more thinking. This become the emotional thinking of the ego. You can see how problematic the duck's life would become if it had a human mind. But this is how most humans live all the time. No situation or event is ever really finished. The mind and the mind-made " me and my story" keep it going.

We are a species that has lost its way. Everything natural, every flower or tree, and every animal have important lessons to teach us if we would only stop, look and listen. Our duck's lesson is this: Flap your wings - which translates as " let go of the story"- and return to the only place of power: the present moment.

Employee Engagement in an innovative way

The CEO of one company was determined that his employees understand the issues surrounding the company’s recent poor results and become fully engaged to help turn the company around. Here’s how he accomplished this. 

 The company held four brown bag lunch meetings over four weeks where employees could attend for free for one hour and hear from an outside professional about how to invest in the share market. Importantly, there was no obvious link between the meeting topic and the organization the employees worked for. At week three, they were analyzing annual reports and generally deciding whether they would invest in a particular company based on the information contained in the report. By the fourth week they were given another annual report and asked the same question, “would you invest in this company?” The answer was overwhelmingly no. And of course this last company was the one they all worked for, which brought them to the “Aha!” moment. Now the organization’s employees understood and were engaged and ready to become involved in turning the company around through teamwork and new initiatives.

Gold or Silver?

Once lived a great mathematician in a village outside Ujjain. He was often called by the local king to advice on matters related to the economy. His reputation had spread as far as Taxila in the North and Kanchi in the South. So it hurt him very much when the village headman told him, “You may be a great mathematician who advises the king on economic matters but your son does not know the value of gold or silver.” The mathematician called his son and asked, “What is more valuable – gold or silver?”“Gold,” said the son. “That is correct. Why is it then that the village headman makes fun of you, claims you do not know the value of gold or silver? He teases me every day. He mocks me before other village elders as a father who neglects his son. This hurts me. I feel everyone in the village is laughing behind my back because you do not know what is more valuable, gold or silver. Explain this to me, son.” So the son of the mathematician told his father the reason why the village headman carried this impression. “Every day on my way to school, the village headman calls me to his house. There, in front of all village elders, he holds out a silver coin in one hand and a gold coin in other. He asks me to pick up the more valuable coin. I pick the silver coin. He laughs, the elders jeer, everyone makes fun of me. And then I go to school. This happens every day. That is why they tell you I do not know the value of gold or silver.” The father was confused. His son knew the value of gold and silver, and yet when asked to choose between a gold coin and silver coin always picked the silver coin. “Why don’t you pick up the gold coin?” he asked. In response, the son took the father to his room and showed him a box. In the box were at least a hundred silver coins. Turning to his father, the mathematician’s son said, “The day I pick up the gold coin the game will stop. They will stop having fun and I will stop making money.” Sometimes in life, we have to play the fool because our seniors and our peers, and sometimes even our juniors like it. That does not mean we lose in the game of life. It just means allowing others to win in one arena of the game, while we win in the other arena of the game. We have to choose which arena matters to us and which arenas do not.

How to get LUCKY! by Professor Richard Wiseman, University of Hertfordshire

Why do some people get all the luck while others never get the breaks they deserve? A psychologist says he has discovered the answer. Ten years ago, I set out to examine luck. I wanted to know why some people are always in the right place at the right time, while others consistently experience ill fortune. I placed advertisements in national newspapers asking for people who felt consistently lucky or unlucky to contact me. Hundreds of extraordinary men and women volunteered for my research and over the years, I have interviewed them, monitored their lives and had them take part in experiments. The results reveal that although these people have almost no insight into the causes of their luck, their thoughts and behaviour are responsible for much of their good and bad fortune. 

Take the case of seemingly chance opportunities. Lucky people consistently encounter such opportunities, whereas unlucky people do not. I carried out a simple experiment to discover whether this was due to differences in their ability to spot such opportunities. I gave both lucky and unlucky people a newspaper, and asked them to look through it and tell me how many photographs were inside. I had secretly placed a large message halfway through the newspaper saying: "Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win $50." This message took up half of the page and was written in type that was more than two inches high. It was staring everyone straight in the face, but the unlucky people tended to miss it and the lucky people tended to spot it. Unlucky people are generally more tense than lucky people, and this anxiety disrupts their ability to notice the unexpected. As a result, they miss opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else. They go to parties'; intent on finding their perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through newspapers determined to find certain types of job advertisements and miss other types of jobs. Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is there rather than just what they are looking for. My research eventually revealed that lucky people generate good fortune via four principles. They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good. 

 Towards the end of the work, I wondered whether these principles could be used to create good luck. I asked a group of volunteers to spend a month carrying out exercises designed to help them think and behave like a lucky person. Dramatic results! These exercises helped them spot chance opportunities, listen to their intuition, expect to be lucky, and be more resilient to bad luck. One month later, the volunteers returned and described what had happened. The results were dramatic: 80% of people were now happier, more satisfied with their lives and, perhaps most important of all, luckier. The lucky people had become even luckier and the unlucky had become lucky. Finally, I had found the elusive "luck factor". Here are Professor Wiseman';s four top tips for becoming lucky: 1) Listen to your gut instincts - they are normally right 2) Be open to new experiences and breaking your normal routine 3) Spend a few moments each day remembering things that went well 4) Visualize yourself being lucky before an important meeting or telephone call. Have a Lucky day and work for it...

DO NOT WASTE THE OPPORTUNITY

When the great library of Alexandria burned, the story goes, one book was saved. But it was not a valuable book; and so a poor man, who could read a little, bought it for a few coppers. The book wasn't very interesting, but between its pages there was something very interesting indeed. It was a thin strip of vellum on which was written the secret of the "Touchstone"! The touchstone was a small pebble that could turn any common metal into pure gold.

The writing explained that it was lying among thousands and thousands of other pebbles that looked exactly like it. But the secret was this: The real stone would feel warm, while ordinary pebbles are cold. So the man sold his few belongings, bought some simple supplies, camped on the seashore, and began testing pebbles. He knew that if he picked up ordinary pebbles and threw them down again because they were cold, he might pick up the same pebble hundreds of times. So, when he felt one that was cold, he threw it into the sea. He spent a whole day doing this but none of them was the touchstone. Yet he went on and on this way. Pick up a pebble. Cold - throw it into the sea. Pick up another. Throw it into the sea. The days stretched into weeks and the weeks into months. One day, however, about midafternoon, he picked up a pebble and it was warm. He threw it into the sea before he realized what he had done. He had formed such a strong habit of throwing each pebble into the sea that when the one he wanted came along, he still threw it away. So it is with opportunity.

Unless we are vigilant, it's easy to fail to recognize an opportunity when it is in hand and it's just as easy to throw it away.

Presence of mind

When Swami Vivekananda went to USA, a lady asked him to marry her. When Swami asked the lady about what made her ask him such question. The lady replied that she was fascinated by his intellect. She wanted a child of such an intellect. So she asked Swami, whether he could marry her and give a child like him. He said to that lady, that since she was attracted only by his intellect, there is no problem. "My dear lady, i understand Your desire. Marrying and bringing a child in to this world and understanding whether it is intelligent or not takes very long time. More over it is not guaranteed. Instead, to fulfill Your desire immediately, i can suggest a guaranteed way. Take me as Your child. You are my mother. Now on Your desire of having a child of my intellect is fulfilled." The lady was speechless.

What is the source of happiness?

This story is about a beautiful, expensively dressed lady who complained to her psychiatrist that she felt that her whole life was empty, it had no meaning. So, the lady went to visit a counselor to seek out happiness. The counselor called over the old lady who cleaned the office floors. The counselor then said to the rich lady"I'm going to ask Mary here to tell you how she found happiness. All I want you to do is listen to her."

So the old lady put down her broom and sat on a chair and told her story: "Well, my husband died of malaria and three months later my only son was killed by a car. I had nobody... I had nothing left. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat, I never smiled at anyone, I even thought of taking my own life. Then one evening a little kitten followed me home from work. Somehow I felt sorry for that kitten. It was cold outside, so I decided to let the kitten in. I got it some milk, and the kitten licked the plate clean. Then it purred and rubbed against my leg and for the first time in months, I smiled.

Then I stopped to think, if helping a little kitten could make me smile, maybe doing something for people could make me happy. So the next day I baked some biscuits and took them to a neighbor who was sick in bed. Every day I tried to do something nice for someone. It made me so happy to see them happy.

Today, I don't know of anybody who sleeps and eats better than I do. I've found happiness, by giving it to others."

When she heard that the rich lady cried. She had everything that money could buy, but she had lost the things which money cannot buy.

JUDGE YOURSELF

Once upon a time there was a painter who had just completed his course. He took 3 days and painted beautiful scenery. He wanted people’s opinion about his caliber and painting skills. He put his creation at a busy street-crossing. And just down below aboard which read - “I have painted this piece. Since I’m new to this profession I might have committed some mistakes in my strokes etc. Please put a cross wherever you see a mistake.” While he came back in the evening to collect his painting he was completely shattered to see that whole canvass was filled with Xs(crosses) and some people had even written their comments on the painting. Disheartened and broken completely he ran to his master’s place and burst into tears. This young artist was breathing heavily and master heard him saying “I’m useless and if this is what I have learnt to paint I’m not worth becoming a painter. People have rejected me completely. I feel like dying” Master smiled and suggested “My Son, I will prove that you are a great artist and have learnt a flawless painting. Do as I say without questioning it. It WILL work.” Young artist reluctantly agreed and two days later early morning he presented a replica of his earlier painting to his master. Master took that gracefully and smiled. “Come with me.” master said. They reached the same street-square early morning and displayed the same painting exactly at the same place. Now master took out another board which read - “Gentlemen, I have painted this piece. Since I’m new to this profession I might have committed some mistakes in my strokesetc. I have put a box with colors and brushes just below. Please do a favor. If you see a mistake, kindly pick up the brush and correct it.” Master and disciple walked back home. They both visited the place same evening. Young painter was surprised to see that actually there was not a single correction done so far. Next day again they visited and found painting remained untouched. They say the painting was kept there for a month for no correction came in! Moral of the story : It is easier to criticize, but DIFFICULT TO IMPROVE! So don’t get carried away or judge yourself by someone else’s criticism and feel depressed… JUDGE YOURSELF! YOU ARE YOUR BEST JUDGE!!!