The Wooden Bowl

A frail old man went to live with his son, daughter-in-law, and four-year old grandson. The old man’s hands trembled, his eyesight was blurred, and his step faltered. The family ate together at the table.  But the elderly grandfather’s shaky hands and failing sight made eating difficult. Peas rolled off his spoon onto the floor. When he grasped the glass, milk spilled on the tablecloth.

The son and daughter-in-law became irritated with the mess. “We must do something about father,” said the son. “I've had enough of his spilled milk, noisy eating, and food on the floor.”  So the husband and wife set a small table in the corner. There, Grandfather ate alone while the rest of the family enjoyed dinner. Since Grandfather had broken a dish or two, his food was served in a wooden bowl. When the family glanced in Grandfather’s direction, sometime he had a tear in his eye as he sat alone. Still, the only words the couple had for him were sharp admonitions when he dropped a fork or spilled food.

The Compassionate Young Boy

Once upon a time, in a small village, there lived a young boy with his step family. Due to the scarcity of water in the village, the young boy awoke early every morning, carried his pot and headed for the stream with the aim of fetching water for himself and his step family. Sadly for him, he alone had this task as a routine every morning and evening to fetch water from a distant stream while his step siblings were given other lenient tasks or even none. Yet, the young boy bore no grudge against his step family, loved them and carried out his task, diligently.

Self-Appraisal

A little boy went into a drug store, reached for a soda carton and pulled it over to the telephone. He climbed onto the carton so that he could reach the buttons on the phone and proceeded to punch in seven digits (phone numbers).  The store-owner observed and listened to the conversation.

Boy: ‘Lady, Can you give me the job of cutting your lawn?

STORY OF THE SCORPION

An old man saw a scorpion drowning and decided to pull it out of the water. He calmly extended his hand to reach the creature. When he did, the scorpion stung him. With the effect of the pain, the old man let go the creature and it fell back into the water. The man realizing that the scorpion was drowning again got back and tried to rescue it but then again it stung him. He let go of it again.

Cognizant Outreach - My first volunteering in a noble cause

Mission: To help the under privilege children through the means of education.

 

Goal: Pre-Assessment of 4th std students in English.

 

Opportunity– This pleasure has been provided to us by the Cognizant Outreach.

 

Benefits:  Internal Satisfaction, Educated Society and many more.

 

Achievement:

Everyone wants to do the social cause and make difference to the society, isn't it?

Yes, but due to various reasons we are not able to achieve it. It might be due to various reasons like the lack of motivation, time constraints and the most common and obvious reason i.e. ‘HESITATON’.

Trouble tree

The carpenter I hired to help me restore an old farmhouse had just finished a rough first day on the job. A flat tire made him lose an hour of work, his electric saw quit, and now his ancient pickup truck refused to start. While I drove him home, he sat in stony silence. On arriving, he invited me in to meet his family.
As we walked toward the front door, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands

After opening the door, he underwent an amazing transformation. His face was wreathed in smiles, and he hugged his two small children and then gave his wife a kiss. Afterward, he walked me to my car. We passed the tree, and my curiosity got the better of me. I asked him about what I had seen him do earlier. “Oh, that’s my trouble tree,” he replied. “I know I can’t help having troubles on the job, but one thing for sure, troubles don’t belong in the house with my wife and children. So I just hang them up on the tree every night when I come home. Then in the morning, I pick them up again.” “Funny thing is,” he smiled, “when I come out in the morning to pick them up, there aren’t nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before.”

Moral: Work life balance is important. We should not carry office or work related stress to home and ensure that pressure is not affecting the family.

Crazy but not stupid

One truck driver was doing his usual load delivery at a mental hospital, by parking his vehicle beside an open drain. He discovered a flat Tyre when he was about to return from the mental hospital. He jacked up the truck and removed the flat Tyre to fix the spare one.
When he was about to fix the spare Tyre, he accidentally dropped all the four bolts in the open drain. As he cannot fish the bolts in the open drain, he started to panic as to what should be done? Just then, one patient happened to walk past him and asked the driver as to why he was looking troubled.

Live and Work

Father was a hardworking man who delivered bread as a living to support his wife and three children. He spent all his evenings after work attending classes, hoping to improve himself so that he could one day find a better paying job. Except for Sundays, Father hardly ate a meal together with his family. He worked and studied very hard because he wanted to provide his family with the best money could buy.

Whenever the family complained that he was not spending enough time with them, he reasoned that he was doing all this for them. But he often desired to spend more time with his family.

The day came when the examination results were announced. To his joy, Father passed, and with distinctions too! Soon after, he was offered a good job as a senior supervisor which paid handsomely.

Like a dream come true, Father could now afford to provide his family with life’s luxuries things like nice clothing, fine food and vacation abroad.

However, the family still did not get to see father for most of the week. He continued to work very hard, hoping to be promoted to the position of manager. In fact, to make himself a worthily candidate for the promotion, he enrolled for another course in the Open University.

Again, whenever the family complained that he was not spending enough time with them, he reasoned that he was doing all this for them. But he often yearned to spend more time with his family.

Father’s hard work paid off and he was promoted. Jubilantly, he decided to hire a maid to relieve his wife from her domestic tasks. He also felt that their three-room flat was no longer big enough, it would be nice for his family to be able to enjoy the facilities and comfort of a condominium. Having experienced the rewards of his hard work many times before, Father resolved to further his studies and work at being promoted again. The family still did not get to see much of him. In fact, sometimes Father had to work on Sundays entertaining clients. Again, whenever the family complained that he was not spending enough time with them, he reasoned that he was doing all this for them. But he often yearned to spend more time with his family.

As expected, Father’s hard work paid off again and he bought a beautiful condominium overlooking the coast of Singapore. On the first Sunday evening at their new home, Father declared to his family that he decided not to take anymore courses or pursue any more promotions. From then on he was going to devote more time to his family.
Father did not wake up the next day.

Moral: Live your life to the fullest, work life balance is important. Balance both work life and family life else you will lose either one of it.

13/6/2013- Blood Donation Camp (CTS)

Many a times I get messages, mails and on social networking sites about people needing blood, but I cant help them as the place might be far away or due to time, place constraints.

So I though donating blood on a regular basis would give me some satisfaction at least (almost every 3 months).

Most of the good organizations organize such events. This time it was Cognizant Technology Solutions (my employer).

It was a bright sunny day, and I was very enthusiastic from the morning itself to donate blood, as this is only my second time after being forced by my friend Aniket Patil to start donating blood. Now when I reached office I read my mails and checked the timing for the blood donation (was from 10:00 AM-5 PM). So this time I decided to encourage people to donate blood as Aniket did. I asked a lot of people, my friends, my colleagues around, but no one was interested, saying that I don't have enough blood or I have never given the blood before. But I decided if no one, I must go again and donate some blood so as to feel myself motivated/ responsible towards the people in the country.

The attitude of finding the common ground..!!

There was a father who left 17 camels as an asset for his three sons. When the father passed away, his sons opened up the Will.

The Will stated that the eldest son should get 1/2 (half) of total camels while the middle son should be given 1/3rd (one-third) and the youngest son should be given 1/9th (one-ninth) of the total camels. As it was not possible to divide 17 into half or 17 by 3 or 17 by 9, the three sons started to fight with each other. So, the three sons decided to go to a wise man.

The wise man read the Will patiently, after giving due thought, brought one camel of his own and added the same to 17. That increased the total to 18 camels. Now, he started reading the deceased father’s Will.

Half of 18 = 9. So he gave the eldest son 9 camels.

1/3rd of 18 = 6. So he gave the middle son 6 camels.

1/9th of 18 = 2. So he gave the youngest son 2 camels.

 Now add this up: 9 plus 6 plus 2 is 17 and this leaves one camel, which the wise man took away.

Moral: The attitude of negotiation and problem solving is to find the 18th camel i.e. the common ground. Once a person is able to find the 18th camel the issue is resolved. It is difficult at times. However, to reach a solution, the first step is to believe that there is a solution.

If we think that there is no solution, we won’t be able to reach any !!!

 

Presence of Mind

A businessman went to a shoe store to purchase a new pair of shoes. He was a prominent person in that town. After selecting a pair of shoes with size 8 he asked the salesperson to pack it.  The salesperson had just started his career and joined the shoe store a few days back.

The businessman soon discovered that he had left his wallet at home. He told the salesperson that he would take the shoes with him and make the payment the next day. The salesperson being new to business excused himself in order to discuss this matter with the store manager.  The manager knew that the customer is an eminent businessman; however, was reluctant to deliver the shoes without payment. At the same time, he was not ready to lose a sale too. He advised the salesperson to handle the situation in the best manner possible and left the place.

The salesperson stood there frozen for few minutes unable to decide. He then returned to the customer, started packing the shoes and handed the package to the customer.

 The next day the customer arrived at the store with the shoes he had purchased, made the payment for his purchase and told the salesperson that "After opening the package I found one shoe with size 8 and the other with size 7.  Maybe you packed them by mistake. Can I have the shoes with size 8 please?"  The salesperson apologized for the inconvenience caused and replaced the wrong size shoe with the correct one. The customer collected his shoes and left the store with satisfaction.  

The manager happened to overhear their conversation and realized that the salesperson had used his presence of mind and handled the situation very well. They didn't lose their business as well as the customer.

Moral:

It is by presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of a man is tested. If an individual has a calm state of mind, his attitude and views will be calm and tranquil even in the presence of great agitation.

 

Change to Change

Once upon a time there was a king who always used to find out negatives in all the things he handles. He used to find faults with his subjects. He always used to scold his kids for not being right. He used to admonish his people for not working hard. He never appreciated his wife for anything in his life. But everyone around him knew that the king is good, except for this behavior.

But once, he was detected with some rare mental illness. So his subjects wanted to make him happy. They all searched everywhere and finally found out a very old doctor. They decided the doctor could use his experience to cure the king.

On examining the king, the doctor advised – “You should only look at green things. That is the only solution”. Hearing this, a complete makeover started. From the king’s crown to the sandals he wore, everything turned green. The palace walls, the tables, chairs and everything was painted green. Many trees were planted nearby so that the king looks only at green color. Everyone coming to meet him was ordered to change their clothes to green. But, the food he ate – could not be completely changed to green color. He cannot paint his food. He can have some green foods, but not all. Again the trouble started. The king became dull again thinking of this.

Again the old doctor was called, he was shocked to see the change in the palace and was really amused at the problem faced. He spoke to the king again. “I am sure you will understand your problem clearly now. I told that you should look at green things. You have a very simple solution. Instead of trying to change the whole world to green, you could have worn a green glass which would have turned the world green”. The king understood. He never found faults with people around him. He appreciated his kids, wife, subjects and people. His world changed green!

 Moral: “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself”

Depiction of life

One day all the employees reached the office and they saw a big advice on the door on which it was written: “Yesterday the person who has been hindering your growth in this company passed away. We invite you to join the funeral in the room that has been prepared in the gym”.  In the beginning, they all got sad for the death of one of their colleagues, but after a while they started getting curious to know who was that man who hindered the growth of his colleagues and the company itself.
 
The excitement in the gym was such that security agents were ordered to control the crowd within the room. The more people reached the coffin, the more the excitement heated up. Everyone thought: “Who is this guy who was hindering my progress? Well, at least he died!”  One by one the thrilled employees got closer to the coffin, and when they looked inside it they suddenly became speechless.  They stood nearby the coffin, shocked and in silence, as if someone had touched the deepest part of their soul. There was a mirror inside the coffin: everyone who looked inside it could see himself.
 
There was also a sign next to the mirror that said: “There is only one person who is capable to set limits to your growth: it is YOU.” “You are the only person who can influence your happiness, your realization and your success. You are the only person who can help yourself.  Your life does not change when your boss changes, when your friends change, when your partner changes, when your company changes. Your life changes when YOU change, when you go beyond your limiting beliefs, when you realize that you are the only one responsible for your life.”
 
Moral: The world is like a mirror: it gives back to anyone the reflection of the thoughts in which one has strongly believed. The world and your reality are like mirrors lying in a coffin, which show to any individual the death of his divine capability to imagine and create his happiness and his success. It’s the way you face Life that makes the difference.