3 top national park pictures

Someone in office asked me to post my top three pictures of National Parks, so here they are :)Sunset on the Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park, October 2004 (above)

Final Rays of the Sun setting down in the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, August 2005 (above)

Half-Dome reflection, Yosemite National Park, June 2001 (above)

Poem on Bombay

Original source : Suketu Mehta, "Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found", pp 477

What could be sold in this carnival?

What intoxication could there be in this earth that the naive and innocent
come to this crossroad of rushing and thieving? ....

They are in search of dreams that will clas with their dreams

Nice picture of the Taj

The 4 kinetic ideas behind Hindu Vedic Spirituality

Karma - The law of universal causality, which connects man with the cosmos and condemns him to transmigrate.
Maya - The world is not simply what it seems to the human senses.
Absolute reality, situated somewhere beyond the cosmic illusion woven by Maya and beyond human experience as conditioned by Karma
Nirvana - The state of absolute blessedness, characterized by release from the cycle of reincarnations; freedom from the pain and care of the external world; bliss.
Yoga - Implies integration; bringing all the faculties of the psyche under the control of the self

India

"In India,
I found a race of mortals living upon the Earth, but not adhering to it,
Inhabiting cities, but not being fixed to them,
possessing everything but possessed by nothing"

---Tyaneus, Greek philosopher in 1st century AD

The Good Old Days

Email forward from Mira Chokshi

The Good Old Days
(Off the Internet. Forwarded to Baroda-Online by Ravi Pandya)

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 60's, 70's and early 80's probably shouldn't have survived, because our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint, which was promptly chewed and licked. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans. When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip-flops and fluorescent 'spokey dokey's' on our wheels. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags - riding in the passenger seat was a treat. We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle and it tasted the same. We ate chips, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy juice with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing. We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no one actually died from this. We would spend hours building go-carts out of scrap and then went top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We would leave home in the morning and could play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us and no one minded. We did not have play stations or x-boxes, no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no DVDs, no Internet chat rooms. We had friends - we went outside and found them. We played elastics and rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt! We fell out of trees, got cut, and broke bones but there were no lawsuits. We had full-on fistfights but no prosecution followed from other parents. We played knock-on-the-door-and-run-away and were actually afraid of the owners catching us. We walked to friends' homes. We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school; we didn't rely on mummy or daddy to drive us to school, which was just round the corner. We made up games with sticks and tennis balls. We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of...They actually sided with the law. This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have seen an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all. And you're one of them. Congratulations! Pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow as real kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good. For those of you who aren't old enough thought you might like to read about us. This my friends, is surprisingly frightening, and it might put a smile on your face: The majority of students in universities today were born in 1986. They are called youth. They have never heard of "We are the World", "We are the children", and the Uptown Girl they know is by West life not Billy Joel. They have never heard of Rick Astley, Bananarama, Nena Cherry or Belinda Carlisle. For them, there has always been only one Germany and one Vietnam. AIDS has existed since they were born. CD's have existed since they were born. Michael Jackson has always been white. To them John Travolta has always been round in shape and they can't imagine how this fat guy could be a god of dance. They believe that Charlie's Angels and Mission Impossible are Films from last year. They can never imagine life before computers. They'll never have pretended to be the A Team, Red-Hand Gang or the Famous Five. They'll never have applied to be on "Jim'll Fix It" or "Why Don't You". They can't believe a black and white television ever existed. And they will never understand how we could leave the house without a mobile phone.

11 Lessons in Life !!

Something to ponder on. (Email forward from Saket Jagati)

11 Important Lessons In Life

1. It hurts to love someone and not be loved in return, But what is
more painful is to love someone and never find the courage to let that person know how you feel.

2. A sad thing in life is when you meet someone who means a lot to you, only to find out in the end that it was never meant to be and you just have to let go.

3. The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had.

4. It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose it, but it's also true that we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives.

5. It takes only a minute to get a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone-but it takes a lifetime to forget someone.

6. Don't go for looks; they can deceive. Don't go for wealth; even that fades away. Go for someone who makes you smile because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright.

7. Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do.

8. Always put yourself in the other's shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts the person too.

9. A careless word may kindle strife; a cruel word may wreck a life; a timely word may level stress; a loving word may heal and bless.

10. The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

11. Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, ends with a tear. When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so that when you die, you're the one smiling and everyone around you is crying.