Pencil

(Contributed by Ms. Margaret Tiburtius)

Small things in our life can teach big lessons and as I read this story by Paulo Coelho in his book “Like the flowing river” I thought I should share this story with a larger audience.
The title of the story is “The story of a pencil”
“A boy was watching his grandmother write a letter. At one point he asked ‘Are you writing a story about what we have done? Is this a story about me’ His grand mother stopped writing her letter and said to the grandson ‘I am writing about you actually but more important than the words is the pencil I am using. I hope you will be like this pencil when you grow up.’
Intrigued the boy looked at the pencil. It didn’t seem very special. ‘But it’s like any other pencil I’ve ever seen.’

‘It depends on how you look at things. The pencil has five qualities, which if you manage to hang on to them, will make you a person who is always at peace with the world.’

First quality: you are capable of great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps. We call that the hand of God, and He always guides us according to his will.

Second quality: now and then I have to stop writing and use a sharpener. That makes the pencil suffer a little but afterwards, he is much sharper. So you too must learn to bear pains and sorrows, because they will make you a better person.’

Third quality: the pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out mistakes. This means that correcting something we did, is not necessarily a bad thing, it helps us to keep on the road to justice.

Fourth quality: what really matters in a pencil is not the wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. So always pay attention to what is happening inside you.’

Finally the pencil’s fifth quality: it always leaves a mark. In just the same way, you should know that everything you do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that in your every action.”

I would like to add up one more quality to the pencil which is very important in today’s world. A pencil can write in any medium. When the space programme was launched the Americans were wondering how to develop a special ink that will write in the vacuum of space. But the Russians used a pencil. The graphite is unaffected by vacuum, heat or cold.
So also, if we want to contribute in a positive manner in our lives, we should be able to adapt ourselves to varying environments.

Educational Electronic Mails (e-mails)

I just want to thank all of you for your educational e-mails over the past year. I am totally screwed up now and have little chance of recovery.  I no longer open a public bathroom door without using a paper towel or have them put lemon slices in my ice water without worrying about the bacteria on the lemon peel.  I can't use the remote in a hotel room because I don't know what the last person was doing while flipping through the adult movie channels.  I can't sit down on the hotel bedspread because I can only imagine what has happened on it since it was last washed.  I have trouble shaking hands with someone who has been driving because the number one pastime while driving alone is picking ones nose (although cell phone usage may be taking the number one spot). Eating a little snack sends me on a guilt trip because I can only imagine how many gallons of Trans fats I have consumed over the years.   I can't touch any woman's purse for fear she has placed it on the floor of a public bathroom.  I MUST SEND MY SPECIAL THANKS to whoever sent me the one about poop in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet sponge with every envelope that needs sealing. ALSO,now I have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.  I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown) who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time.  I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program.  I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa's Novena has granted my every wish.  I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers..  I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.  THANKS TO YOU I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an e-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes. BECAUSE OF YOUR CONCERN, I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains.  I no longer can buy petrol or diesel without taking someone along to watch the car so a serial killer won't crawl in my back seat when I'm filling up.  I no longer drink Pepsi or Fanta since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put 'Under God' on their cans.  I no longer use Cling Wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer. AND THANKS FOR LETTING ME KNOW I can't boil a cup of water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face.. Disfiguring me for life.  I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.  I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.  I no longer receive packages from UPS or Fed Ex since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise.

I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica , Uganda , Singapore , and Uzbekistan ... 

I no longer buy expensive cookies from Woolies since I now have their recipe. 

THANKS TO YOU I can't use anyone's toilet but mine because a big brown African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my butt. 


AND THANKS TO YOUR GREAT ADVICE I can't ever pick up R5.00 dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting underneath my car to grab my leg. 

I can no longer drive my car because I can't buy petrol from certain fuel companies! 

I can't do any gardening because I'm afraid I'll get bitten by theViolin Spider and my hand will fall off. 

If you don't send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 p.m. Tomorrow afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your back, causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbors' ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's beautician . . . 


Oh, by the way......


I now keep my toothbrush in the living room, because water splashes over 6 ft. out of the commode.

How to make a quick Pulav

You can whip up a delicacy with whatever is available in the house in a jiffy. Here’s how you can make mouth-watering as well as stomach-filling delicious pulao Pulao in a jiffy (Getty Images) What you need is just rice, some vegetables and regular spices. Ingredients 1 cup rice 2 cup water 2 cups of cut vegetables (cauliflower florets, carrot, potatoes and green peas) 1 large onion 3-4 cardamoms 1/2 tsp red chilli powder 1 small piece of cinnamon 2-4 cloves 4 tsp cooking oil 1 tsp salt How to make quick vegetable pulao Wash and soak the rice for an hour, drain and keep aside. Chop the onion finely and cut the potatoes and carrot into small pieces. Heat oil in a pan and fry the onions till golden brown, add all the vegetables, cinnamon, cloves and cardamoms. Saute for 2-3 minutes, add little water and cook till the potatoes and peas are half cooked. Then add the drained rice, salt and red chilli powder. Mix well. Add two cups of water and boil. When the water starts boiling, reduce the flame and cover and cook till the rice is done. You can also garnish the pulao with ghee-roasted cashew nuts. Eat with freshly prepared onion raitha. For raitha, slice onions, mix with salt and thick curd.

Tenali Rama and the Brinjal

http://www.pitara.com/talespin/folktales/online.asp?story=74
Clown, jester, poet…Tenali Rama, minister in the court of the ruler of Vijaynagar, Krishnadeva Rai (reign: 1509-30), was a lot of things. Stories, about Tenali Rama and his practical jokes on everyone around him including distinguished fellow poets and the emperor himself, abound in south India.

His fame spread beyond Vijaynagar (present-day Andhra Pradesh), to areas that come in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka today. Tenali Rama was also a great scholar of several languages that included Marathi, Tamil and Kannada. 

King Krishnadeva Rai had some superior quality brinjal or aubergine plants growing in his private garden. No one was allowed to view the garden without the king's permission, let alone taste the brinjal.

Once the king invited his courtiers to a feast in which the brinjal was served. Tenali Rama enjoyed the vegetable so much that he talked to his wife about it on returning home - so much so that she insisted on tasting it.

"How can I get them for you?" Tenali Rama asked. "The king is so possessive about the vegetable that he can detect the theft of even one brinjal from his garden. And, I'm sure that he would want the thief's head chopped off right then, if he caught him red-handed.

But Tenali's wife begged him to allow her to taste the brinjal.

Tenali Rama was helpless. After much deliberation, he agreed to his wife's demand. One night he quietly jumped into the king's garden and plucked a few brinjals from the garden. His wife cooked them with zeal and was all praise for the taste. She wanted to let their six-year-old son also taste the vegetable, but Tenali Rama asked her not to.

"Don't make such a mistake", he warned her. "If he happens to tell somebody, we will be in deep trouble."

But his wife did not agree. "How is that possible? How can we eat something whose taste we shall remember forever and not share it with our son! Find a way out so that he gets to taste the vegetable and nobody is able to prove that we stole it from the king's garden."

Tenali Rama had no option but to nod his head in agreement.

He filled a bucket with water and went upstairs to the roof where his son was sleeping. He poured the water on the child. Then he picked up the child and said: "It is raining. Let us go inside the house."

Once in, he got the child's clothes changed and gave him the vegetable to eat. He again remarked that it was raining outside, and let the boy sleep in the room.

The next day the king came to know of the theft in his garden. The royal gardener who kept a head count of each vegetable and flower, found one brinjal missing. It became the talk of the town. The king declared a huge prize on the thief's head.

Chief Minister Appaji suspected that only Tenali Rama was capable of such an audacious act. He let the king know about his suspicion.

The king said: "I know he is very clever and always gets out of charges on one pretext or the other. It is better that we call his son. We will find the truth through him. Tenali will lie to get out of any situation, but he would never ask the child to do so."

Tenali Rama's son was called. He was asked what vegetable he ate the night before. The child replied: "The brinjal and it was the tastiest vegetable I've ever eaten."

Chief Minister Appaji told Tenali Rama: "Now you will have to accept your guilt."

"Why should I when I'm not guilty?" replied Tenali Rama. "The boy went to sleep very early last night and seems to have had many dreams. That is why he is talking nonsense about brinjals and rain and what not. Ask him if it rained last night or not."

Appaji asked the child: "How was the weather last night? Was the sky clear or did it rain?"

The child replied: "It rained heavily last night. All my clothes got wet when I slept on the roof." The fact was, not a single drop of rain had fallen on Vijaynagar that day.

Appaji had no option but to get rid of his suspicions in the face of such apparent madness.

He apologised to Tenali Rama for having suspected him. 

Teacher and Guru

TEACHER & GURU

A teacher takes responsibility of your growth
A Guru makes you responsible for your growth

A teacher gives you things you do not have and require
A Guru takes away things you have and do not require

A teacher answers your questions
A Guru questions your answers

A teacher helps you get out of the maze
A Guru destroys the maze

A teacher requires obedience and discipline from the pupil
A Guru requires trust and humility from the pupil

A teacher clothes you and prepares you for the outer journey
A Guru strips you naked and prepares you for the inner journey

A teacher is a guide on the path
A Guru is a pointer to the way

A teacher sends you on the road to success
A Guru sends you on the road to freedom

A teacher explains the world and its nature to you
A Guru explains yourself and your nature to you

A teacher makes you understand how to move about in the world
A Guru shows you where you stand in relation to the world

A teacher gives you knowledge and boosts your ego
A Guru takes away your knowledge and punctures your ego

A teacher instructs you
A Guru constructs you

A teacher sharpens your mind
A Guru opens your mind

A teacher shows you the way to prosperity
A Guru shows the way to serenity

A teacher reaches your mind
A Guru touches your soul

A teacher gives you knowledge
A Guru makes you wise

A teacher gives you maturity
A Guru returns you to innocence

A teacher instructs you on how to solve problems
A Guru shows you how to resolve issues

A teacher is a systematic thinker
A Guru is a lateral thinker

A teacher will punish you with a stick
A Guru will punish you with compassion

A teacher is to pupil what a father is to son
A Guru is to pupil what mother is to her child

One can always find a teacher
But a Guru has to find and accept you

A teacher leads you by the hand
A Guru leads you by example

When a teacher finishes with you, you graduate
When a Guru finishes with you, you celebrate

When the course is over you are thankful to the teacher
When the discourse is over you are grateful to the Guru

ill effects of Alcohol

1. Alcohol is the most socially accepted addictive substance and is a contributing factor in over 75% of all Date Rapes.
2. Alcohol dehydrates you: it does not quench thirst, it makes thirst worst. Alcohol is also extremely high in empty calories.
3. Drinking alcohol while you are pregnant can cause permanent brain damage and often causes physical deformations in babies. FAS and PFAS (formerly FAE) are devastating disorders that often render their victims unable to function is society or to care for them selves in socially acceptable ways; many of these children grow up to commit suicide or end up living in the criminal justice system.
4. Alcohol causes varying degrees of the following side effects in EVERYONE who uses it; dulness of sensation, lowered sensory motor skills, lowered reactive or reflexive motor responses, impaired thought processes, impaired memory, impaired judgement, sleep or sleeplessness, and in extreme cases can cause coma and death.
5. When an alcoholic beverage is ingested a full 20% of the alcohol immediately enters the bloodstream by penetrating the wall of your stomach; drinking on a full stomach can slow this process.
6. Many people mistakenly believe alcohol is a stimulant, like coffee, when in fact it is a depressant.
7. One of the first things to go when you have been drinking alcohol is your sense of good judgement and your inhibitions.
8. Alcohol can cause the following behaviours; aggression, sexual openness, excessive talking, spilling secrets, lying, phony friendliness and quick tempers.
9. A "hang over" is what happens when your body enters alcohol withdraw and the head aches you get are caused by extreme dehydration of your brain - your brain is literally being pulled away from your skull, leading to throbbing aches and sharp pains at attachment points like the temples and base of the neck.
10. 70% of alcoholics and alcohol abusers will suffer the following irreversible physical side effects; cirrhosis of the liver (fatal in over 60% of cases), "cauliflowering" of the nose and ears (where your ears and nose become cauliflower shaped), permanent restructuring of the brain including loss of long term memory, heart problems, obesity, premature dementia (partial and full), loss of bladder control and slurred speech even when sober.

Recipes

Pulikachal:

Tamarind - size of a medium orange
Methi seeds - 1 tsp
Red chillies - 10-12 ( or to taste)
Hing - 1 heaped tsp
Urad dhal - 1 tbsp
Whole black channa (small size) - ¼ cup – can substitute gram dhal
Mustard seeds - 2 tsp
Groundnuts - 2 tbsp ( optional)
Salt,
Haldi
Gingelly oil - 4 tbsp

To tamarind add 1 cup of warm water, take a thick extract & strain.
Soak dhals for 1 hr & drain completely.
Cut chillies into small pieces.
Lightly dry roast methi seeds & powder with hing.
Heat 2 tbsp oil in a heavy vessel, temper mustard seeds & red chillies first.
Then add dhals & fry till they become dry, add haldi, salt & tamarind extract.
Boil the mixture on a medium flame.

When the “ sauce consistency “ is reached, add methi-hing powder, mix & remove.
Heat the remaining oil, fry groundnuts & add to the above.
If you add 4 tbsp oil in the beginning, the mixture will splash all over, when boiling. So always add half the oil, after removing from the flame.
When mixing with rice, add fresh curry leaves (raw) for a good flavour and some extra raw oil.
A little extra salt, if required, may be added.
Crush the red chillies with hand when mixing with rice and throw away so that there may not be many red chillies to pick out, while serving – This is optional.
This amount is sufficient for ½ kg rice.
This can be used with sevai, semiya, aval etc.

Enjoy...

How to make Stuffed Capsicum

Capsicums have a strong flavour that mixes well with Indian food. In this recipe I have used an instant mashed potato mix powder. It's available in most general stores and takes less than five seconds to whip up.
Step One: Wash capsicums. Slice them from the top and remove the seeds to make them hollow. You might have to remove the white parts from within as well. Slice a thin layer from the bottom, without cutting into the hollow, so that your capsicums can stand steadily.
Step Two: Heat oil in a pan and fry onions till they are light pink.
Step Three: Add ginger garlic paste and sauté for a minute.
Step Four: Add green chillies and keep stirring.
Step Five: Add the mashed potatoes, paneer, dhania leaves, salt, mango powder, red chilli powder and garam masala powder. Mix well while stirring. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
Step Six: Divide the mixture evenly and stuff into the six capsicums.
Step Seven: Place capsicums on a greased microwave dish. We use a square or rectangular glass bowl.
Cook uncovered in the microwave on high for four minutes.
Although there are only four stuffed capsicums, the size after stuffing is pretty big. One capsicum per person is about fair, since this won't be the only thing you serve. The best way to eat them is with your hands as you would a roll because the stuffing tends to fall out if you slice the capsicums with a knife. Serve with rice or roti