Life and Coffee

As I was trying to think of something funny to write about coffee/tea and the types of emotions that go along with it, I remembered coming across a story which is inspiring as well as thought provoking. Though I wanted to write the post involving India somehow, I didnt want to ruin the story. Enjoy!!

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups--porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: “If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life; and the type of cup we have does not define nor change the quality of life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us."

Enjoy your coffee! “The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything."

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.

Now only if we try to look beyond the superficial things. The body that we carry is nothing but a shell and what matters is whats inside of us. The type of coffee we are inside and not the cups makes us who we are.

I do have to confess though that I do like the idea of collecting coffee cups :-)

Filled with I's

I came across this tag in a blog and I thought I would also include this in mine just to write about something and discover myself along the way with this tiny experiment.

Here we go:

I am thinking...of what I should write and what I will be discovering about myself from this experiment.

I said...that I will do this and that but sometimes I don’t get around to doing it….sorry!

I want...to have mom’s cooking while sitting with dad and sis at the dinner table. Plus someone helping my mom instead of me ;-)

I wish...I can fly….literally and figuratively fly.

I miss...family in NYC...have been out of NY since May.

I hear...just complaints all the time whenever I go to Chennai. But thank God not from kids.

I wonder...what it would be like to just sit, relax and wonder.

I regret...not falling in love earlier. Its a great feeling to be in love…..but if I had fallen in love earlier...how would I have found the love of my life now. :-)

I am...what I am.

I dance...Not!!

I sing...when I am alone and when I am comfortable with others.

I cry...very rarely.

I am not...perfect.

I write...about things that only I can understand, you can only make some sense out of it.

I confuse...myself sometimes.

I need...to be comforted just like everyone else even though I don’t show it on the outside.

I should...spend more money on myself.

I finish...things at the last minute, just to put on more pressure on myself. See I finished this post an hour after I started.

I enjoyed doing this, maybe you should also give it a try. It might clear things up a bit.

The Indi-list

There is a certain list going around in the blogsphere called Z-list that The Viral Garden: The 'Z-List' continues to spread introduced by Mack Collier. It lists the blogs that have been neglected for whatever reasons, but are very good to read.

Then an indian blogger named Reshma started a similar list but solely focusing solely on Indian blogs.

She says

I have started the list with a few blogs which you will find at the end of my post, I have restricted myself to Indian blogs / bloggers. All you need to do is :

1. Copy and paste the list of blogs into your new post,
2. Add to that list any additional blogs that you think need more air time. You can add as few or as many (good) blogs as you like
3. If blogs you wanted to add are already on the list / you can't think of any, that is fine too. just be a kind soul and repost the list you find :)
4. Add these instructions in your post so the next blogger does the same thing.

The cumulative effect of the list growing from post - to - post will lead to your discovering new blogs that you hadn't seen before and some of those good blogs will get the link love they deserve.

The honour rule: is the you don't add your own blog to the list. If someone thinks you should be on the list, you will !

Help us keep track of the list.
Just so that we know where and how the list is growing, if you use tags please include the tag indi-list in your post or send in a mail with your post link.

We hope the list lives and grows for a long time to come and will attempt to maintain a list of blogs on the indi-list at Blogchaat.

And with that the indi-list is born

Engage Energize Evolve
On borrowed Time
Witandwisdumb
Urban Junkie
DiagonallyParked in a parallel universe

And now my addition to the list:

Sayesha's world
A Mirror with a Smiling Life! ! !
Within / Without
Metroblogging Chennai
Metroblogging Bangalore
Something about Everything
Angee's World
Dilettante
A rupee for my thoughts!

Feel free to copy to your blog and add to the list some of your favorites that you want the world to know :-)

Dilbertisms

A New Year and most of us are back from vacations and drudging back to our work. Thinking that it will be the same as last year, hmm well don’t worry; Dilbert is here to save us with some advice for this year and beyond.

I saw this on a fellow blogger's website, plus I have read this numerous times via email-fwds. Still I thought I will post it as well and maybe look back on it from time to time. :-)

Here are the Dilbertisms:

1. I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow is not looking good either.

Wish we can at times live like this, not caring about what other people think and just live for ourselves. No need to please anyone.

2. Tell me what you need, and I'll tell you how to get along without it.

Ah this one is very good, there is nothing as an absolute need. Things can be replaced so learn to live with the adjustments in life.

3. Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.

Think of this for a minute. The person next to your cubicle, dont you think he/she also has ideas on why you just sit there and not talk to them....weirdo.

4. Never argue with idiots. They drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience.

Exactly!

5. A pat on the back is only a few inches from a kick in the butt.

HAHA now this is something that many top managers do best. Just do your job with the utmost pride and dont worry about the pat on the backs...who knows the manager might miss and just kick the butt.

6. The more crap you put up with, the more crap you are going to get.

Don’t think that just because you are patient and able to handle it, it is not affecting you. It is affecting you!!…All the crap that you deal with day in and day out, put a stop to it. Let people know that it is not tolerable.

7. When you don't know what to do, walk fast and look worried.

Hmmm…ok I have done this, it works :-). However do try to know what you are doing. It helps to get yourself some time by walking fast and looking worried, but use that time to read/learn up on things.

8. Following the rules will not get the job done.

As another saying goes… “Rules are meant to be broken” take heed of it and do what you must to get the job done.

9. There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.

This is a funny one but how many of us feel that it describes them. Working in a pressure filled situation will bring out the best in us as well as the worst. Try to balance it, it is indeed a fine line.

10. Life is a waste of time; time is a waste of life, so get wasted all of the time and have the time of your life.

Life is not all about work work work, try to have fun as well. Remember all work and no play makes jack a dull boy.

Seven Gifts to the world - New York City

The gifts of New York City to the world are many, picking seven is a tough task but the people at metro blog have come up with their list of seven things. Agree with it or not, it is certain that these are the things that any New Yorker would atleast appreciate.

No 7:
New York has always been an ideal location for movie settings.NYC is the home of so many famous movie scenes. When you factor in the many scenes from Ghostbusters, Goodfellas, and other well-known classics, NY's role becomes that much more respectable.

New York gives the world a prime location for film and movies! Now lately even for bollywood .
Movie Settings

No 6, I know you agree...you better or else:
New York way of Attitude, with a capital Type A. Visitors may find us pushy, loud, rude, and opinionated, but we have to be in order to survive this rat-infested race. How else to get yourself onto an already packed subway, or grab that last cab during a shift change, or get some decent service around here. "I'm walkin' here!" Dustin Hoffman's character shouts in Midnight Cowboy as he almost gets run over, something I want to holler about every other day.

But you know it's nothing personal. When you actually stop to talk to one of us, we're pretty friendly and cool, especially when you need directions, or a recommendation for a restaurant.... Where else can you find folks who'll jostle you out of the way one minute, and the next argue with others about how you can get from the Upper West Side to the Lower East Side in the fewest number of subway changes?
Attitude with capital A

Now for No 5:
If you've only been to New York as a tourist, you may have a narrow view of music and theater here. Our town is famous for Broadway musicals and Lincoln Center extravaganzas, but most performances don't involve $100 tickets, elaborate sets, or dancers in cat costumes. In summer, music and theater are everywhere - from al fresco string quartets, to Shakespeare in the Park, to major outdoor concerts. And the list goes on...
Music and Theatre galore

No 4 on the list is:
Racial Diversity, a diverse place to live. There are more opportunities for people who aren't white here. That says a lot about a country filled with immigrants.
Racial Diversity

On to No 3:
BIG, I am referring to the architecture and infrastructure that separates NYC from every other US mega-city and makes it the most easily traversed and interesting destinations in the world. Everything is big: subways, water supply, transportation, bridges...these were all experiments that NYC did and other cities learnt from it.
Infrastructures

The No 2 on the list:
Courage. Not everybody appreciates this, but our courage and our defiance in the face of danger are a true contribution to America and the world.
Every day, our thoughts turn at least once to the gaping hole at Ground Zero. But our courage shows the world how to live when things happen to which you have no control over.
Courage

And the No 1:
Our fantastic cuisine, unequivocally our #1 Gift To The World. One of the great things about New York City is cuisine as varied and far reaching as its residents themselves. New York City is home to so many restaurants that it seems you could eat at a different place for every meal of the day for the rest of your life and never go to the same place twice.
Fooood...yummmy

Seven Gifts to the world - Chennai

For the past few days... the Metro Blog's around the globe have been dedicated to have 7 things about their city which represent gifts to the world. One gift a day for 7 days, this is a list of the two cities that I know of and love. Chennai and New York city.
Let me start with Chennai...

No 7 on the list is:
We're talking of Madras Cotton, or the Bleeding Madras. Cotton cloth was one of the main reason, the East India company chose to settle down in Madras, and build its factory here. For, here in a sandy tract of land, was "Cloathe, the cheaper by 20p". This part of the land was always associated with cotton, apparently.
Madras Cotton

No 6 is:
I'd say a laid-back attitude. Chennai is a calm, cultured place where raw aggression is barely seen on the surface. Ever since madras was assembled as a loose collection of neighbouring villages in the seventeenth century, the Madras of old, has been a quiet, warm hostess, offering freely of her wealth while holding on to her tranquil lifestyle. Elihu Yale was one of the first to return from India with a fortune and consequently to be accused of sharp practice.

So it is, Ladies and Gentlemen, wealth made on these shores found their way into building one of the world's most famous universities. Yale University
Wealth made from Chennai

On to No 5:
Speech, they said once, was possibly the swiftest form of communication. Although the chances that an Indian cook, when causally mentioning "milagu-thanneer" to his British superior, anticipating that his weird sounding concoction would take cooks of the world by storm - is probably a fate he/she didn't even contemplate.

If that ain't a potpourri of cultures, what else is?
Potpourri of cultures

No 4 on the list:
Indo-Saracenic architecture is described as a style of architecture used by British architects in the late 19th century in India. It drew elements from traditional Hindu and Islamic architecture, and combined it with the Gothic revival style favored in Victorian England.

Some of the many other Indo Saracenic buildings in Chennai include: the Madras University Senate House; the High Court (and another picture here); the Government Museum; the General Post Office; Egmore Station; Central Station
Indo-Saracenic Architecture

No 3 is none other than:
A.R. Rahman... need I say anything else. Music!
A.R. Rahman

on to No 2:
"I maintain that no organization can lead man to spirituality.
If an organization be created for this purpose, it becomes a crutch, a weakness, a bondage, and must cripple the individual, and prevent him from growing, from establishing his uniqueness, which lies in the discovery for himself of that absolute, unconditioned Truth.
So that is another reason why I have decided, as I happen to be the Head of the Order, to dissolve it"
That was Jiddu Krishnamurti, disbanding the Order of the Star of the East, the Order that was specifically formed to declare him as the Maitreya Buddha, the World Teacher.
Maitreya Buddha - World Teacher

And the No 1 thing that is chennai's gift to the world:
The beaches of Chennai, right from the isolated ones Kovalam, to the crowded Marina and Beasant Nagar, are an integral part of the city. Any visitor to the city has to visit the beach as a part of every trip, someone who does not live in Chennai will find it hard to understand the why every chennaiite loves the beach, its not spectacular, its definitely not picturesque, and its dirty, but the beaches despite their drawbacks do have an aura, just sitting in the sand, under the stars, with not a single soul in sight (yes this is possible in the isolated beaches along ECR, late at night), and listening to the waves. Walking on the beach, late at night is absolute bliss.
Chennai Beach

There you have it, 7 things that are a real gift to chennai. I am sure you have other things that you can think of, you can write about them in comments.

Next up is New York City.

Life's Greatest Lessons

Success is more than making money

Life is hard....and not always fair

Life is also fun...and incredibly funny

We live by choice, not by chance

Attitude is a choice - the most important one you will ever make

Habits are the key to all success

Being thankful is a habit - the best one you will ever have

Good people build their lives on a foundation of respect

Honesty is still the best policy

Kind words costs little but acomplish much

Real motivation comes from within

Goals are dreams with deadlines

There's no substitute for hard work

You have to give up something to get something

Successful people dont find time - they make time

No one else can raise your self-esteem

The body needs nutrition and exercise - so do the mind and spirit

It's ok to fail - everyone else has

Life is simpler when we know what's essential

and

Essential # 1, is being a good person