Beats of My Heart

All of us waiting to welcome the New Year. At the stroke of 12 past midnight one more year dawn up on us as 2009. Although in our home, we celebrate the traditional new year based on moon cycles, we are not averse to celebrate January 1st of every year. My mom makes some sweets, and the day starts with visiting nearest temple, seeking the almighty God to bestow his grace for the ensuing new year.

Every one has their own way in celebrating the new year depending on their culture.
I have read, long ago, a news article, that people in Denmark celebrate the new year with a special sweet rice pudding. They will place a Diamond studded gold ring in the rice pudding. Those who get the serving with the ring, assured of good luck for the rest of the year.

To me the year 2008 is a mixed bag. We have a bumper crop, but my father got his thigh bone fractured. A marriage in the home, and a funeral too.
Personally, i hope the year 2009 will do some good, to me, and all of us. As I have been awaiting the results of my  professional accountant exams, I expect positive results. I wish to achieve my targets in work.

I wish the turmoil in Middle East end soon, and both Israelis and Palestinians live in peace. I wish hunger and strife torn African countries, will get a solution this year. I wish quagmire in Sri Lanka too, end soon and peace prevails there.

With a lot of positive thoughts, Let’s WELCOME the NEW YEAR 2009..

This the time to send and receive new year greeting cards. I have picked up some beautiful greeting cards today. I am checking the addresses of near and dear to post the greeting cards.
Problem is I have to go to nearest postal office to buy stamps. One of my friends suggested, I should have a look at E-cards. E-cards are easiest way to send the new year greetings. But, I prefer to send the cards through post. I feel they convey the message better than e-cards. Because the post cards we send, not only express new year’s greetings, but also express our taste in selecting them. My friends sometimes admire my selection of cards.
I always keep good greeting cards I received on my desk, or stick them to fridge door. They remind me the persons who send those exotic pictures as long as they are intact. E-cards on the other hand may serve the purpose, but they might be ignored in piles of other mails. Besides that paper materials are environment friendly and easily recyclable.
Sending greetings serve other purpose too. Since I am a philately hobbyist, I always encourage and request others to send me some beautiful stamps. Those tiny stamps attract everyone’s attention.
Today, we all are much dependent on e-mails. And the exotic stamps are a rarity. Postal stamps reflect the origin country’s culture and life.

Anyway, I am in favor of sending greetings through post, and on my way to post office. What about you ?..

I am a bit lazy these days. First it is due to festive holidays, and then freezing cold. Though I have enjoyed the festive days with family and friends, the climate is the spoiler of my health a bit. Seasonal weather conditions are the nature’s special effects. We can not tolerate the scorching heat,nor we can stop the deluge.

But this season has its beauty. White snow,like carpet, everywhere, brought back the memories of childhood days of playing with snow balls, and building snow castles. Since i am feeble, I was not allowed frequently to play with snow balls.
Now all those golden days are gone.Today what I can do is, sit before my desktop computer and play NFS, or watch Youtube videos.

Actually I was addicted to Internet. My friends now calling me as loner, and my parents are angry about rising power bills.But I am feeling, I can not live without Internet.I do not know what it is called in medical terminology.

The fact is, I am in search of those lost childhood days, which I have not enjoyed a lot. I can not play like a kid today. I can not enjoy those innocent days anymore. what I can do now is just remember those early years of my age.
May be you think,I am a bit too sensitive. But it is true. And perhaps true to all of you.I want to be a kid again. I want to play with my buddies again [who are now busy in search of employment]. If the almighty God allow me a boon, I certainly want to be a kid again.

Corruption..corruption and corruption. Like the God, corruption too became all pervading.
Corruption is the greatest hindrance to growth. Corruption at the public service and in political circles is the shame to democracy. After the world war II , corruption devil was on rampage across the globe. Almost all the nations suffered and still continues to suffer from this menace. Corruption has significant effect on income per head not only in developed countries but also in poor nations.

Like all ordinary persons, I am too a victim of corruption. I can not help but pay, to get my work done at various public service offices. Politicians always make promises to completely eradicate the corruption if they got elected. Once they elected they simply turn blind and collect their share of bribes.

As  civilized citizens we need to have a look in to this matter. Though it effects us at individual level we try to minimize it, rather than opposing it. Corrupt public servants may become wealthy today, but they too need to pay to get their retirement benefits, once they  are out of service.
This may be ridiculous to some people. But see how much development we are losing. If the public money was spent for public services, our lives will be better. Pathetic public health care, education system and public libraries resembles the level of corruption.

Wake up leaders we vote for you, to better our lives, not to make them worse.

And we should vote for a clean government which take right measures to curb corruption. we need strict laws to combat corruption. Accountability and responsibility should be strictly observed in public services.

I took a oath not to pay anymore bribes in the year 2009 and in future. What about you?

For last few days I had been to my grandpa’s village. It’s a remote place surrounded by hills and beautiful green paddy fields. There was shortage of power and everyone has to travel about 50 miles to fetch groceries. But the place is peaceful and tranquil. Clean air and clear skies. People are very friendly and affectionate. Today there were lesser people in the village and more houses are vacant because of migration to big cities in search of jobs and better living conditions.
Migration in the earlier centuries helped to build the nations. Not only humans but also birds, animals etc., flock together to escape weather vagaries and in search of food. Sometimes the entire villages are empty due to relocation of people. But the villages are more convenient places to live in. my father is always nostalgic about his place of birth. May be it is same for all. We move to cities because of employment opportunities. I was told that earnings in the villages are generally self sufficient.
Migration also caused brain-drain. Today more and more educated and skilled people leave the villages and countries. This is really a bad situation. No one deny the fact that individuals need opportunities to settle in life, and great cities can provide good jobs. But the situation back at home is really sad. See the Chinese entrepreneurs, they come back to their country of origin and established various industries and firms to strengthen their economy. Their contribution to their villages is great and should be followed by everyone. Today China is more secure to global economic turmoil than any other country.
Development of villages with better connectivity, water and power supply etc., make them in to future cities. Because so called great cities of today, are once small towns and villages.

Nature has answers to everything we need to know. What we, ordinary persons, cannot understand is the clues the Mother nature provides. See for instance, even before we down with fever we get body aches and feel little bit uncomfort. If we take precautionary steps we may avoid the fever.

Some days ago, I have seen an advertisement about whole protein powder diet. This powder is meant to reduce the body weight thereby obesity. The powder contains high quantity of vitamins, proteins and some minerals. This powder is to be taken twice a day at specified quantity with milk, skipping the breakfast and lunch. In 30 days we can experience the results.

The problem of obesity is, as I understand, not due to overeating, but of improper metabolism. Key to health is balance in eating. All of the nature, life is based on positive and negative polarities. Hot and cold, dry and wet, male and female etc., can be easily perceived polarities. Polarities like anabolic and catabolic reactions are vital to our survival.

Nature provides balance in all foods. If all the polarities are in balance we can have good health, and if they are imbalanced we get disease. If either of positive or negative polarity overpowers the other, the result is the unhealthy condition.

Nature creates a balance of vitamins proteins and mineral in vast and diverse food products. Taking commercially manufactured vitamins supplements not only disturb the delicate balance in the metabolism, but also creates intoxicants in the body and cause disease. It may in short term reduce the obesity but in later days create more complications.

My opinion is instead of going for those diet powders, we have to use more nature products, like fruits and whole wheat, rice etc.. Reducing the sugar, coffee, alcohol and salt intake is always good to the body. This way we can maintain body polarities and be healthy.

Never go for advertised diets. Eating in moderation is always preferred.

The word ‘Money’ is like ‘Honey’.[Who would not like it?]. Money, like blood, is also a life source. In the ancient days, there was barter system of trade. Money gradually replaced the barter system.

Money is the greatest motivator, whether for good or bad acts. We earn money for our survival. Some people amass the money to be wealthy, while some people getting poverty by spend it recklessly. Amazing point is, money makes wealthy even more wealthy, while poor people struggle for bread.

Just watched the movie ‘Ruthless People’ [starring Danny De Vito, Betty Midler, Judge Reinhold and Helen Slater], for the 5^th time. This funny movie gives the glimpses of money value. ‘Ultimate Gift’ starring Drew Fuller, too, is about the true value of money.

But, when it comes to true life situations, we could not exercise discretion. It seems we are spending money just because we are earning money! We take loans, wherever possible, and buy whatever we wish to have. We follow others blindly, to purchase articles, just because others bought it, even if we do not need them. We could not resist the urge, and we sometimes mistook it as prestige.

We need to conserve money. Saving a Dollar a day, may help to run the life smoothly in the fag end. We need to be frugal.  People of Japan and China have good savings when compared to other countries. That is why their economies are strong despite global economic upheavals.

As an individual, I am investing 5% of my earnings in fixed term deposits. This way, I can sleep without any insecurity in later stages of my life. I made up my mind, not to imitate others in buying useless stuff. I do not want to pile up unnecessary goods in the store room.

Think about the necessity before, making a decision to buy anything. Exercise discretion, and save some money for urgent needs.

Technology is really a boon. Digital convergence was possible due to technological advances in all fields. We are immensely benefitted by the digital convergence. This revolution has helped us to run our daily lives very efficiently with lot of gadgets and gizmos that are easy to use.
Since the invention of steam engine later telephone and radio, in every discovery, the technological research advanced in leaps and bounds. Same is the case with airplanes. We are now enjoying all these fruits.
Few years ago I have to keep both a phone and a personal digital assistant. But today both these devises are combined in to smart phones. We can talk and send email notes with the same device and set personal schedules with ease. Similarly, computer notebooks. When I first saw a IBM laptop at my uncle’s home I wondered very much, about how they packed everything in to a small box. See today, netbooks, mobile internet devices and even touch screen phones are in proliferation. GPS navigators for not to lose the direction.
However there is negative aspects too. Too much typing using the computer turned my beautiful hand writing in to scribbling which is no more comprehensible, and also forced me to see a orthopedist. Besides privacy concerns, long talks with my friends, colleagues or family on cell phone, made my left ear insensible to other distant voices. I have developed a habit of checking my email box for every few minutes and waiting for PDA alarm to ring to see what is my schedule for the day.
Today I have made a decision not to use any of these devises for a couple of weeks. I want to practice hand writing and send snail mail, put off the smart phone and use paper calendar to make my schedules. In this way at least I can get back my brain to work normally.

We ‘All’ are human beings. Whatever may the country, we were born in, and whatever may be our blood groups. We all have the same blood and that is always RED. There is no authority, whether scientific or religious ,that dares to say people born in certain religions will only have red blood. I mean when we were born as human beings we all have same blood color.

God has created all humans equally. We did not think before we born, in which religion we have to born. We inherit, what our parents have already, including religion. Religion never preaches killing somebody. In my view, religion is a fundamental framework, which helps us to build character and life. All religions, be it Christian, Muslim, Hindu or Jewish, and countless others, emphasized the value of true life and personal character.

Then, there comes the so called self professed teachers, who incite their innocent disciples to commit heinous crime, of killing innocents from opposite religions. These people are not really teachers, but blood mongers. Instead of teaching the value of life to their students, they pollute them with religious fundamentalism. We can see the results of this in every corner of the world. Be it Bali, New York, London, Madrid or Mumbai. Innocent people are losing their blood and life.

My request to those teachers is, do not make your students as monsters. Give them good lessons to stand on their feet. Help them build character and their life. Teach them the value of blood. Remove their religious ignorance and bring them in to sunshine from darkness.

Honesty is the best policy. To be honest requires lot of guts. Because being honest creates lot of troubles. Truthfulness is a great personal quality. We can’t pretend to be honest. Our actions convey more than our words.

See, today everyone tries to cheat others. Present financial crisis is the result of dishonesty and irresponsibility. We can see how many family’s deposits with financial institutions evaporated, leaving the depositors in anxiety and uncertainty. Over speculation, greed and mismanagement of investors’ funds forced so called greatest financial institutions in to insolvency, bankruptcy.  Also, lot of divorces is as a result of not being honest towards each other.

The Bible, Bhagavat Gita or Quran, all scriptures command followers, to be honest towards others. When we are dishonest we not only hurt others feelings, but also acquire bad karma. Dishonesty may give short term gains, but honesty pays rich dividends throughout our life.

Personally I am honest in all walks of life till now, and I wish to continue to do so for the rest of my life. I know I may not be successful sometimes, but I would like to maintain personal integrity and honesty.

Be honest. Start today with family members ..