Life explained

Got this as a fwd:

On the first day, God created the dog and said:

'Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.'

The dog said: 'That's a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?'

So God agreed.

On the second day, God created the monkey and said:

'Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span.'

The monkey said: 'Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the Dog did?'

And God agreed.

On the third day, God created the cow and said:

'You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.'

The cow said: 'That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years.. How about twenty and I'll give back the other forty?'

And God agreed again.

On the fourth day, God created humans and said:

'Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you twenty years.'

But the human said: 'Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?'

'Okay,' said God, 'You asked for it.'

So that is why for our first twenty years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.

Movies n books...

Grown Ups (2010): 3/5

The Expendables (2010): 1/5 (I would love to dissect this movie..but am busy with a lot of other things)


Keep the change- Nirupama Subramanian : 3/5 (I would have added another 0.5..but the end wasn't too great). But overall...its much much better than many of the Indian authors I have read. Recommended!

Science project

We had worked hard…very hard!! It had taken us many sleepless nights to prepare the science project. The motivation for all the hard work was the prize. An opportunity to represent the school in the state science exhibition competition!!

It all had started three months back…

It was my idea. After convincing Ratul and Prasad (which took a great deal of effort), we discussed it with Sophia miss (our class teacher). She had approved it after a few suggestions and we had set off on our ambitious journey.

The next few days were spent in purchasing stuff needed for the project. Thermocol, cardboard, chart paper, sketch pens, fevicol, etc… were stacked in the corner of Ratul’s room (Only Ratul had a whole room to himself…so it wasn’t difficult in choosing our workplace.) Individual responsibilities were assigned and we were off…

Two months down the line, the project was ready and we were also heavier by a few pounds (due to the delicious snacks prepared by Ratul’s mom for us :)). The finishing touches were made and the project was transported to our school science lab two days before the selection.

As we could make out, the only competition we had was from Madhyama’s group. They had a fantabulous project in place and it was going to be tough. The other projects were good too, but we were miles ahead and I had a feeling that all would depend on the demo. Extra efforts were made and we rehearsed our demo to perfection.

D-day arrived. Tension was in the air. Our crisp school shirts were drenched in sweat. The two judges arrived and we could literally hear our hearts beating loud and clear. Madhyama’s group delivered a stellar performance. The judges were all praises for them. We huddled in the corner and I told the others “Its now or never”.

Our demo went smooth and we answered all questions. It was over. The results were going to be announced in fifteen minutes.

We prayed. I begged God to let us win this one time.

The results were announced. We had lost by one point. This was the first time I had lost in life.It hurt bad..and I cried.

Sophia miss walked up to us and hugged us. She took me one corner and told me “In life you cannot win every time. There will be times when you will lose, but you must learn to accept defeat with a smiling face.” I didn’t stop crying but nodded my head (though I was clueless about what she meant.)

Today many many years later, I want to thank Sophia miss for teaching me one of life’s greatest truths. Thank you miss, I hope you are happy wherever you are.

Happy teacher’s day!

P.S: I miss those days when computers were not an integral part of life and a making a school project had nothing to with Google and the Internet.