Salt, Pepper and Spice of LIFE

You're sitting at a table, having a meal with some friends.Bowls of soup are served to everyone at the table. Before tasting the soup, the person next to you reaches for the salt and pepper, and for the next 20 seconds vigorously shakes intothe soup more salt and pepper than you would use in a month.

You have a pained look on your face. These thoughtsimmediately go through your mind: "Why would you put salt and pepper in soup, or on any dish, BEFORE you taste it? How do you know how much to add?" You might also think, "How can someone put so much salt and pepper in their food?"

Of course, the roles could be reversed. You might be the one who loves to put a lot of salt and pepper on your food and the person next to you eats the soup without adding salt or pepper. In that case, you think, "How can she eat this bland soup without putting any seasoning in it?"

When it comes to salt, pepper, onions, garlic, curry or just about any type of seasoning, we tend to see things only one way - OUR way. It's hard for us to understand how someone could enjoy food when it is not seasoned as we think is appropriate. We cringe when we see someone "overdoing" or"under-doing" the spices.

How we season our food is a matter of preference and personal taste. There is no right or wrong way to use seasonings.Furthermore, the way in which another applies salt and pepper does not affect us in any way. They're not putting the salt and pepper in YOUR soup. They are putting the spices in theirown soup.

Our world is so diverse, and yet it is difficult for us to accept each other's preferences. Often, when we see people doing things we wouldn't do, our mind says:

Why aren't they thinking as I think?

Why aren't they acting as I would act?

Your mind would often have you believe that your way is superior. Your beliefs and habits are shaped by your genetics and your environment. Each person has different genetics and has grown up in an environment that is different than yours. Why expect everyone to come to the same conclusion?

Our spiritual growth comes when we learn to accept that others have different preferences, and we honor those preferences. There is no universal religion that everyone will agree to practice. There is no universal political viewpoint that allwill accept. There is no one way of raising children that all cultures will agree upon. Marriage customs will vary from culture to culture.

Getting people to agree on these issues is like trying to get everyone to use the same amount of salt and pepper on their food. It's not going to happen.

The diversity in this world is beautiful and we can open our hearts to it. Within our own country and in our relations with people in other countries, we need to continually remind ourselves that it's perfectly acceptable for people to have preferences. If the other person is not harming us, why can't we just smile and get on with life?

The next time you're tempted to judge or criticise the way other people think or act, realize that in most cases, they're just using a different amount of salt or pepper than you would use. Allow them to have their preferences, and there is no need to even consider what YOU would do.

THE BRICK

About ten years ago, a young and very successful executive named Josh was traveling down a Chicago neighborhood street. He was going a bit too fast in his sleek, black, 12 cylinder Jaguar XKE, which was only two months old.

He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no child darted out, but a brick sailed out and - WHUMP! - it smashed Into the Jag's shiny black side door! SCREECH..!!!! Brakes slammed! Gears ground into reverse, and tires madly spun the Jaguar back to the spot from where the brick had been thrown. Josh jumped out of the car, grabbed the kid and pushed him up against a parked car. He shouted at the kid, "What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing?!" Building up a head of steam, he went on. "That's my new Jag, that brick you threw is gonna cost you a lot of money. Why did you throw it?"

"Please, mister, please. . . I'm sorry! I didn't know what else to do!" Pleaded the youngster. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop!" Tears were dripping down the boy's chin as he pointed around the parked car. "It's my brother, mister," he said. "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up." Sobbing, the boy asked the executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."

Moved beyond words, the young executive tried desperately to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. Straining, he lifted the young man back into the wheelchair and took out his handkerchief and wiped the scrapes and cuts, checking to see that everything was going to be OK. He then watched the younger brother push him down the sidewalk toward their home.

It was a long walk back to the sleek, black, shining, 12 cylinder Jaguar XKE -a long and slow walk. Josh never did fix the side door of his Jaguar. He kept the dent to remind him not to go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at him to get his attention. . . Some bricks are softer than others. Feel for the bricks of life coming at to you. For all the negative things we have to say to ourselves, God has positive answers.

(got this one from a forwarded email, yet worth reading)

Unnai Pol Oruvan- Movie Review

One more feather added to the cap of ..........................Kamal Hassan???? Has it to be so obvious as always. This time I am struggling to pen, it is not. Then who???None other than Mohanlal. This would have been a surprise for many but to be honest Lal outplayed Kamal Hassan in this entire flick. Full credit to the team that dared to bring a movie spanning just less than 2 hours exempting the usual commercial formulas.

Kamal Hassan would be credited only for remaking the movie boldly in a tinseltown which has seen abrupt changes in scripts, fresh rural centric successful movies in the last 2 years. Mohanlal on the other hand has done justice to the role of a Commissioner with such finesse. His body language defintely needs to be reckoned. I would still appreciate the whole team with the brand "the remake which was original" similarly like Kuruthipunal(Hindi version-Drohkal). UPO has many "first time in Tamil Cinema" to boast of. Kamal and Mohanlal's combination being the epitome of success. Debut of director and the music director.Director Chakri's work is not hard as his Hindi counterpart had. He had to make sure the essence of the movie is not tarnished at any stage. He is well supported by Kamal's expertise knowledge which is evident throughout the movie. I would not claim Kamal acted with utmost brilliance. He had tried to underplay as a "common" man but the "Kamalism" in him wakes up once in a while. One more significant factor which tends to carry the movie is BGM. This cannot be branded as Shruthi Hassan's debut movie. The score is world class I should say. Her favourite music seems to be Jazz as it is evident in a few places and also in a few albums of hers. But she is clever enough to deliver the amount of score required for this flick. I am afraid will she be able to score for a normal Tamil movie? .The adaption to different scripts is mandatory for any musician. Very few like the maestro and Mozart of Madras have succeeded consistently.She was lucky enough to debut in a movie which needed some western BGM. Hope she recovers from the fame quickly to paddles up for other movies. Overall the movie is fast paced, sans mediocre formulas, spreads a strong social message on terrorism. Rather than questioning Kamal Hassan whether solution for terrorism would be terrorism, it is better to ask the question ourselves.

Pollution Free Diwali after 20- An awakening!!!!!

Diwali or Deepawali has always brought cheers to the whole family, society,city and country. Now it is worldwide too. What is Diwali? A Festival of lights. A sign of Good's victory over Evil. The awareness of inner light. In south India, it is the victory of Lord Krishna over the demon Naragasura. Whatever be the original meaning of Diwali, three things are inevitable, a public holiday, sweets and finally fire crackers.


During childhood, I used to wait one whole year for Diwali just like other kids. Hardly a month or two before diwali, we would start our purchases starting with dresses. I used to have 2 or 3 unfortunate years as I had my birthday and Diwali occuring on the same day. I meant "unfortunate" because during school, the very first working day after Diwali we were allowed to wear the Diwali dress. Also we were allowed to wear our birthday dress on our birthdays as always. Now you would have known how "unfortunate" I was having both my Diwali and Birthday on the same day not having a chance to wear both the dresses on different days. The first unfortunate year passed with so much of "grief and sorrow". My mum pacified me saying I can wear my birthday dress to school on some other day without anyone knowing. That is what she could do to stop my crying. Not that I did not want to do what she said. Right from KG I had a "friend" in class who shared the same birthday as I am. and the whole class knew it. I would perfectly land in trouble if I wore my birthday dress on a different day. So the "sorrow" continued the next year too. This was too much for me. The same drama passed for that year. It was New year Eve. I rushed to my dad's table to open a new diary which had the list of holidays for the New year. Yes, no prizes for guessing. I was cautious that there should not be a date conflict again this year. Luckily there was not one. From that day I started loving Diwali once again to the core.

Years passed. My interest in Diwali slowly started to fade that I was looking forward only for newly released movies. Yes, my zeal for movies was daring to sneak out. As always being an ardent fan of Kamal Hassan I started looking for his movies on Diwali. Either his movie or Rajnikanth's movie would defintely grace the theatres for sure. I would defintely catch up with the movie during first week.That was "my" Diwali celebration. I was not interested in lighting the crackers much then. I had my own reasons. The sole intention of this blog is to gather people of my own thoughts and prepare to face the "global -warmed" future.

Just last week I had read an article on the fast growing global warming recently in a leading Daily Newspaper. The large number of servers used for multipurpose poses a threat to the existing environment. It has been found that the heat developed by these servers have much to account for global warming.To maintain the servers in AC chambers lot of gases had to be burnt to maintain the chillness. To avoid this the researchers from Iceland have come up with a potential proposal. The relocation of Internet servers like Yahoo to Iceland would make things easy and would not cater the needs of maintainence of servers but also can avoid using AC chambers. So much studies and surveys have proved that if existence of Internet is mandatory, so is our green environment. Only if we start planning now for future our generation would benefit from our actions. Remember I am not a connoisseur to speak about Global warming in detail. Just a mere Human having a bit of care for our Mother Earth

Similarly Diwali may be a festival of lights for us at present but the air pollution from bursting the crackers defintely has its effect on the environment. A few may argue it is just for one day. Yes, I agree but the amount of smoke on that "day" alone makes the earth warmer by a few degrees. What I am trying to stress out strongly is bursting crackers can be done upto certain age. We cannot set an embargo for children burst crackers as they would have been dreaming of this day for past few months like how we did in the past. Dont get impetuous to ignore this awakening.We can save our earth from getting warmer by not bursting crackers after the age of 20. It is as simple as that. Rather than being selfish we can sacrifice little for the younger generation's future earth. We as humans- the only 6th sensed animal can only ameliorate the present state of the earth. I wish it turns true

Who Paints Your Picture???

I read this from a forwarded mail. Liked it very much......

After years of terrorizing the countryside, hunting deer, poaching
livestock, killing game, Tiger grew long in the tooth. Finally, he knew it
was time to retire. So he packed his bag: "Poor self-esteem? Check. Poor
body image? Check? Poor self-image? Check. Self-portrait? Uh ... oh, well,
three out of four ain't bad."

Tiger ambled into town and came to stand before the Three Little Pigs
Retirement Home Inc. He rang the bell, and the first little pig appeared on
the landing above. "What do you want?" asked the little pig.

"I come here to retire," Tiger replied.

"Ooooh. I don't think so," the little pig declared. "You're not like us.
You've got big teeth. Very dangerous. We can't let you in."

Tiger, having poor self-image, went to the dentist to improve these apparent
deficiencies, and had his teeth removed. The next day, he returned to the
Three Little Pigs Retirement Home Inc. "What do you want?" asked the second
little pig.

"I have no more teeth. I come here to retire," Tiger replied once more.

"Ooooh. No, no, no. That just won't do," the little pig exclaimed. "You're
different. You have sharp claws. You scare us. We can't let you in."

No teeth, no claws, no self-portrait
Tiger took his poor self-esteem and even worse body-image to the manicurist
and had his claws removed. The next day, he returned to the Three Little
Pigs Retirement Home Inc. "What do you want?" demanded the third little pig.

"I have no more claws. I come here to retire," Tiger repeated.

"Ooooh. Let me see," the little pig muttered as he disappeared from sight.
Tiger heard much whispering and commotion behind the big wooden doors.
"Okay, come in," said the little pig.

Tiger strolled through the doors, and there stood the three little pigs,
grinning ear to ear. Suddenly they jumped on Tiger. Squealing with delight,
they beat him up and sent him packing. No teeth. No claws. Yippee! Finally
they got even with Tiger for terrorizing the animals.

Tiger should have known better. He should have accepted who he is and not
try to conform to someone else's image of him. What tiger in his right mind
lets a pig paint his portrait? He should have painted a self-portrait
instead.

Do you seek to improve your body or your body image? Do you seek to improve
your claws or your nails, or do you improve your self-esteem? What do you
see when you look in the mirror?

So, who paints your portrait?