| ☼ ☼ SIDE EFFECTS of working in the IT sector !!! ☼ ☼ Suhagini
Once I was getting down from an auto giving him Sodexho instead of 10 rupee note. |
Do read this..IT Mannerism
The Dark Candle
THE DARK CANDLE
A man had a little daughter--an only and much beloved child. He lived only for her, she was his life. So when she became ill and her illness resisted the efforts of the best obtainable physicians, he became like a man possessed, moving heaven and earth to bring about her restoration to health.
His best efforts proved fruitless, however, and the child died. The father was totally irreconcilable. He became a bitter recluse, shutting himself away from his many friends, refusing every activity that might restore his poise and bring him back to his normal self.
Then one night he had a dream. He was in heaven and witnessing a grand pageant of all the little child angels. They were marching in an apparently endless line past the Great White Throne. Every white-robed, angelic tot carried a candle. He noticed, however, that one child's candle was not lit. Then he saw that the child with the dark candle was his own little girl. Rushing towards her, while the pageant faltered, he seized her in his arms, caressed her tenderly, and asked, "How is that your candle is the only one not lit?" "Father, they often relight it, but your tears always put it out again," she said.
Just then he awoke from from his dream. The lesson was crystal clear, and it's effects were immediate. From that hour on he was no longer a recluse, but mingled freely and cheerfully with his former friends and associates. No longer would his little darling's candle be extingushed by his useless tears.
8 Effective Cold Prevention Strategies
1. Wash your hands - The world we live in is filled with viruses and bacteria that can make us ill. Your hands are no exceptions. Wash your hands often to keep them clean. If you cannot wash them, at least use some hand sanitizer, such as Purel.
2. Drink hot fluids, especially in the morning - The rhinovirus incubates in the back of the throat and spreads in the upper respiratory area because it's cooler than the body temperature. Rhinovirus can't survive at 98.6 (hence it doesn't travel far down into the bronchi or the lungs). By drinking hot fluid (such as hot tea and lemon) you can prevent the virus from incubating.
3. Keep your hands out of your face - We have already discussed the germs and viruses on your hands. You cannot wash them continuously, so in between washings keep your hands out of your face. Your face is an open portal to your insides. Keep the germs away from your portal.
4. Drink water - Drinking more water is my answer to everything. Water will help clean out your body and keep it clean. It will also keep your body functioning at 100%. You should drink at least (eight) 8oz glasses of water everyday. This will also help you lose weight.
5. Eat your fruits and vegetables - There are phytochemicals and antioxidants in fruits and vegetables that can help strengthen your immune system and prevent diseases. You should eat at least four servings of vegetables and two servings of fruits every day.
6. Multivitamins - If you are not eating all of your fruit and vegetable servings, you should take a multivitamin to ensure you are getting all of the vitamins your body needs to function properly. Take a simple one-a-day multivitamin everyday.
7. Stay warm - Being cold weakens your immune system and makes your body more susceptible to illness. Look at the day's temperature at weather.com before leaving your home. Wear layers in and out of your home when it is cold.
8. Relax and rest - Stress weakens your immune system. You can reduce your stress levels by relaxing and getting more sleep. Sleep is essential to maintaining a healthy immune system. Sleep will also boost your recovery time if you become ill.
Getting a cold can derail your nutrition and activity plans. However, if you follow the strategies I laid out for you, you can prevent this from happening.
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MARKETPLACE
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ID theft in a Hotel via their card key...Caution!!
7 websites to make you seem more interesting than you are
So you checked. You don't suffer from halitosis, no body odour problems, and you're not even bad-looking , but you just can't seem to make any breakthrough with people at social gatherings. Why? Well, it's probably because you're bad at conversations. You don't know where to begin, and when you do, you mostly don't have anything interesting to say.
Mostly, you're the person nursing a drink at the periphery of a party conversation, nodding sagely, at least that's the look you've been going for so far. But why stand at the edge when you can be bang in the middle of all the action; holding court, narrating anecdotes, and generally just appearing well-informed on anything and everything.
Here are seven websites, equipped with which, you can appear intelligent to almost anyone. Well, not everyone, but at least it's a start...
www.thefreedictionary.com
This resource is one of the best places in Cyberia for any information of any sort. Besides dictionaries in English and 13 other languages, the site boasts of a thesaurus, a section for abbreviations, idioms, an encyclopaedia, as well as a literature reference library, and all supported by a nifty search engine. Daily visitors can also expect regular features such as word of the day, quote of the day, article of the day, this day in history, and so on. But my personal favourite has got to be the word game section , which includes Hangman and Spelling Bee. But I digress. Equipped with this resource, you can wax eloquent on practically anything under the sun.
www.acronymfinder.com
Every now and then, someone might try to appear smarter by spewing out an acronym or abbreviation at you with a condescending smirk. But if you have bookmarked Acronym Finder in you browser, that's one less tactic they can use to make you feel stupid. Now, while it won't keep you informed about everything there is to know, at least it will help you mitigate your losses. This site has more than 7,50,000 'human-edited' definitions, abbreviations and acronyms about computers, technology, telecommunications, and the military. So bookmark it ASAP before people start ROTFL at your ignorance.
www.etymonline.com
This site is all about polishing you into a fairly decent wordsmith. You know you can't have a conversation without being equipped with the right linguistic skills. Also, it always helps to know the root of words so you don't trip while trying to appear smart. Enter Etymonline. This resource will help you understand the origin, development, and the 'true sense' of a word. In simpler language, if you need to know the basis of any word in English, then this is the place to go to. Heck, it even covers "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" . You might want to look that one up while you're at it.
www.biography.com
Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people . But how will you ever discuss people, if you know nothing about them? I suggest you make haste to this resource. Whether it's Pope John Paul II or Martin Luther King, Adolf Hitler or Winston Churchill , Genghis Khan or Alexander the Great, Princess Diana or Marilyn Monroe , you'll find all their biographies here; complete with photographs, videos snippets, etcetera. And on those nights when you don't have any social invites, visit Biography.com anyway. It definitely makes for interesting reading. True story.
wolframalpha.com
How do I put this mildly without sounding like a fanboy? Wolframalpha is a search engine with a difference. Enter your birth date as a search parameter, and the engine will throw up details like the number of years, months and days you have spent on this planet; famous personalities that were born on the same day; the phase of the moon on the day you were born, etc. Enter in a colour, say 'pink', and it will throw up its RGB value, its hexadecimal code, complementary colours and the like. But don't take my word for it, go on, type in Mumbai and Tokyo in the box, and see what you get. Useless facts and statistics can be a great conversation opener.
www.pantheon.org and www.theoi.com
Everyone likes a story, and mythology has always a good subject to mine for conversations . So for your fill of gods and demons, check out Pantheon.org and Theoi.com; both excellent places to start. While the latter only covers Grecian divinity (and does it exceedingly well), Pantheon includes mythological characters from across the globe: From our own Ganesha to the Greek Zeus, the Roman Jupiter to the Nordic Freya, from the Egyptian Anubis to the Aztec Quetzalcoatl. The gods, it seems, have made these two URLs their personal domain. So if the exploits of the gods has always been your Achilles' heel, then this site is your river Styx. Take a dip.
www.brainyquote.com
So you've tried a few Siddhuisms, and you've managed to get a few guffaws out of your soft-headed friends. But now it's time to up the ante. If you're looking to impress people with higher IQs than your cronies, you must take recourse to BrainyQuote. The site is a repository of quotations from humourists, playwrights, presidents, authors, humanitarians and practically everybody who is anybody. Like someone famous said and I don't remember who, but you'll probably find the quote on the site itself: "Next to being witty, the best thing is being able to quote another's wit". I agree.
Mostly, you're the person nursing a drink at the periphery of a party conversation, nodding sagely, at least that's the look you've been going for so far. But why stand at the edge when you can be bang in the middle of all the action; holding court, narrating anecdotes, and generally just appearing well-informed on anything and everything.
Here are seven websites, equipped with which, you can appear intelligent to almost anyone. Well, not everyone, but at least it's a start...
www.thefreedictionary.com
This resource is one of the best places in Cyberia for any information of any sort. Besides dictionaries in English and 13 other languages, the site boasts of a thesaurus, a section for abbreviations, idioms, an encyclopaedia, as well as a literature reference library, and all supported by a nifty search engine. Daily visitors can also expect regular features such as word of the day, quote of the day, article of the day, this day in history, and so on. But my personal favourite has got to be the word game section , which includes Hangman and Spelling Bee. But I digress. Equipped with this resource, you can wax eloquent on practically anything under the sun.
www.acronymfinder.com
Every now and then, someone might try to appear smarter by spewing out an acronym or abbreviation at you with a condescending smirk. But if you have bookmarked Acronym Finder in you browser, that's one less tactic they can use to make you feel stupid. Now, while it won't keep you informed about everything there is to know, at least it will help you mitigate your losses. This site has more than 7,50,000 'human-edited' definitions, abbreviations and acronyms about computers, technology, telecommunications, and the military. So bookmark it ASAP before people start ROTFL at your ignorance.
www.etymonline.com
This site is all about polishing you into a fairly decent wordsmith. You know you can't have a conversation without being equipped with the right linguistic skills. Also, it always helps to know the root of words so you don't trip while trying to appear smart. Enter Etymonline. This resource will help you understand the origin, development, and the 'true sense' of a word. In simpler language, if you need to know the basis of any word in English, then this is the place to go to. Heck, it even covers "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" . You might want to look that one up while you're at it.
www.biography.com
Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people . But how will you ever discuss people, if you know nothing about them? I suggest you make haste to this resource. Whether it's Pope John Paul II or Martin Luther King, Adolf Hitler or Winston Churchill , Genghis Khan or Alexander the Great, Princess Diana or Marilyn Monroe , you'll find all their biographies here; complete with photographs, videos snippets, etcetera. And on those nights when you don't have any social invites, visit Biography.com anyway. It definitely makes for interesting reading. True story.
wolframalpha.com
How do I put this mildly without sounding like a fanboy? Wolframalpha is a search engine with a difference. Enter your birth date as a search parameter, and the engine will throw up details like the number of years, months and days you have spent on this planet; famous personalities that were born on the same day; the phase of the moon on the day you were born, etc. Enter in a colour, say 'pink', and it will throw up its RGB value, its hexadecimal code, complementary colours and the like. But don't take my word for it, go on, type in Mumbai and Tokyo in the box, and see what you get. Useless facts and statistics can be a great conversation opener.
www.pantheon.org and www.theoi.com
Everyone likes a story, and mythology has always a good subject to mine for conversations . So for your fill of gods and demons, check out Pantheon.org and Theoi.com; both excellent places to start. While the latter only covers Grecian divinity (and does it exceedingly well), Pantheon includes mythological characters from across the globe: From our own Ganesha to the Greek Zeus, the Roman Jupiter to the Nordic Freya, from the Egyptian Anubis to the Aztec Quetzalcoatl. The gods, it seems, have made these two URLs their personal domain. So if the exploits of the gods has always been your Achilles' heel, then this site is your river Styx. Take a dip.
www.brainyquote.com
So you've tried a few Siddhuisms, and you've managed to get a few guffaws out of your soft-headed friends. But now it's time to up the ante. If you're looking to impress people with higher IQs than your cronies, you must take recourse to BrainyQuote. The site is a repository of quotations from humourists, playwrights, presidents, authors, humanitarians and practically everybody who is anybody. Like someone famous said and I don't remember who, but you'll probably find the quote on the site itself: "Next to being witty, the best thing is being able to quote another's wit". I agree.
Perception: Women Vs Men
Women Friends chatting in office.
Woman 1: I had a fine evening, how was yours?
Woman 2: it was a disaster. My husband came home, ate his dinner in three minutes and fell asleep in two minutes. How was yours?
Woman 1: Oh it was amazing! My husband came home and took me out to a romantic dinner. After dinner we walked for an hour. When we came home he lit the candles around the house and afterwards talked for an hour. It was like a fairytale!
At the same time, their husbands are talking at work.
Husband 1: How was your evening?
Husband 2: Great. I came home, dinner was on the table, I ate and fell asleep. It was great! What about you?
Husband 1: It was horrible. I came home, there's no dinner because they cut the electricity because I hadn't paid the bill; so I had to take my wife out to dinner which was so expensive that I didn't have money left for a cab. We had to walk home which took an hour; and when we got home remember there was no electricity so I had to light candles all over the house! After all, I was so aggravated that I couldn't fall asleep and my wife was jabbering away for another hour!
English - A Crazy Language,Must read
We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Then shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?
Then shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?
Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!
Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England .
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
We find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing,
Grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.
If you have a bunch of odds and ends
And get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
Should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
While a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
In which your house can burn up as it burns down,
In which you fill in a form by filling it out,
And in which an alarm goes off by going on.
And, in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop?
And if people from Poland are called Poles
Then people from Holland should be Holes
And the Germans, Germs.
And let's not forget the Americans, who changed s to z, but that's another story.
Drink Water on Empty Stomach (Must Read)
Headache, body ache, heart system, arthritis, fast heart beat, epilepsy, excess fatness, bronchitis asthma, TB, meningitis, kidney and urine diseases, vomiting, gastritis, diarrhea, piles, diabetes, constipation, all eye diseases, womb, cancer and menstrual disorders, ear nose and throat diseases.
METHOD OF TREATMENT
1. As you wake up in the morning before brushing teeth, drink 4 x 160ml glasses of water
2. Brush and clean the mouth but do not eat or drink anything for 45 minutes
3. After 45 minutes you may eat and drink as normal.
4. After 15 minutes of breakfast, lunch and dinner do not eat or drink anything for 2 hours
5. Those who are old or sick and are unable to drink 4 glasses of water at the beginning may commence by taking little water and gradually increase it to 4 glasses per day.
6. The above method of treatment will cure diseases of the sick and others can enjoy a healthy life.
METHOD OF TREATMENT
1. As you wake up in the morning before brushing teeth, drink 4 x 160ml glasses of water
2. Brush and clean the mouth but do not eat or drink anything for 45 minutes
3. After 45 minutes you may eat and drink as normal.
4. After 15 minutes of breakfast, lunch and dinner do not eat or drink anything for 2 hours
5. Those who are old or sick and are unable to drink 4 glasses of water at the beginning may commence by taking little water and gradually increase it to 4 glasses per day.
6. The above method of treatment will cure diseases of the sick and others can enjoy a healthy life.
1. High Blood Pressure (30 days)
2. Gastric (10 days)
3. Diabetes (30 days)
4. Constipation (10 days)
5. Cancer (180 days)
6. TB (90 days)
7. Arthritis patients should follow the above treatment only for 3 days in the 1st week, and from 2nd week onwards - daily.
This treatment method has no side effects, however at the commencement of treatment you may have to urinate a few times.
It is better if we continue this and make this procedure as a routine work in our life. Drink Water and Stay healthy and Active.
This makes sense .. The Chinese and Japanese drink hot tea with their meals ..not cold water. Maybe it is time we adopt their drinking habit while eating!!! Nothing to lose, everything to gain...
For those who like to drink cold water, this article is applicable to you.
It is nice to have a cup of cold drink after a meal. However, the cold water will solidify the oily stuff that you have just consumed. It will slow down the digestion.
It is nice to have a cup of cold drink after a meal. However, the cold water will solidify the oily stuff that you have just consumed. It will slow down the digestion.
Once this "sludge" reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food.. It will line the intestine.
Very soon, this will turn into fats and lead to cancer. It is best to drink hot soup or warm water after a meal.
Very soon, this will turn into fats and lead to cancer. It is best to drink hot soup or warm water after a meal.
A serious note about heart attacks:
* Be aware of intense pain in the jaw line.
* You may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart attack.
* Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms.
* 60% of people who have a heart attack while they are asleep do not wake up.
* Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep.. Let's be careful and be aware.. The more we know, the better chance we could survive...
CLEAN YOUR KIDNEYS IN LESS THAN Re. 1.00
| CLEAN YOUR KIDNEYS IN LESS THAN Re. 1.00 Years pass by and our kidneys are filtering the blood by removing salt, poison and any unwanted entering our body. With time, the salt accumulates and this needs to undergo cleaning treatments and how are we going to overcome this? It is very easy, first take a bunch of parsley (MALLI Leaves) KOTHIMBIR (DHANIYA)and wash it clean Then cut it in small pieces and put it in a pot and pour clean water and boil it for ten minutes and let it cool down and then filter it and pour in a clean bottle and keep it inside refrigerator to cool. Drink one glass daily and you will notice all salt and other accumulated poison coming out of your kidney by urination also you will be able to notice the difference which you never felt before. Parsley is known as best cleaning treatment for kidneys and it is natural! |
Hope you will forward this to all you know
Life Ke Funde.. He he he he..
SEVEN FUNDAMENTALS OF LIFE FOR TODAY.
1. Money is not everything. There's also Mastercard & Visa.
2. One should love animals.They are tasty too.
3. Save water. Drink beer.
4. Studying is healthy, So leave it for the sick.
5. Books are holy. So don't touch them.
6. Love your neighbour but never get caught.
7. Everyone should marry because happiness is not the only thing in life.
A Good Story on EXPERIENCE
A Very Good Story!!!!!!!!!!
A giant ship engine failed. The ship's owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure out how to fix the engine.
Then they brought in an old man in his eighties who had been fixing ships since he was a young man. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully from top to bottom.
Two of the ship's owners were there watching this man and hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!
A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.
"What?!" the owners exclaimed. "He hardly did anything!"
So they wrote the old man a note saying, "Please send us an itemized bill."
The man sent a bill that read:
Tapping with a hammer...... ......... $ 1.00
Knowing where to tap.......... ......... $ 9,999.00
Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort makes all the difference!!!!!!!!!!!!
and Knowing where to make an effort is called "EXPERIENCE", so respect people with that!!!!!!!!!!!
Have a Great Day……..
Teachers' Day Week Specials | Former Indian President's A.P.J. ABDUL KALAM address on the eve of Teachers' Day
Following is the Full text of the former Indian President's A.P.J. ABDUL KALAM address on the eve of Teachers' Day.
Dear listeners of All India Radio and teachers, my greetings to all of you.
I am talking to you on the special occasion of Teachers' Day. On this day, we gratefully remember the great educationist Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, whose dream was that "Teachers should be the best minds in the country". Hence, Teachers' Day is very important for all our people, for our students and even for all the parents, as the teachers lay the foundation for creating enlightened citizens for the nation. On this day, I would like to recall three teachers who helped me in shaping my life.
To begin with I am going to talk to you about my father Janab Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen, as a teacher. My father taught me a great lesson when I was a young boy. What was that lesson? It was just after India got Independence. At that time Panchayat board elections took place at Rameswaram. My father was elected Panchayat Board member and on the same day he was also elected the president of the Rameswaram Panchayat Board. Rameswaram Island was a beautiful place with 30,000 populations. At that time they elected my father as Panchayat Board president not because he belonged to a particular religion or a particular caste or spoke a particular language or for his economic status. He was elected only on the basis of his nobility of mind and for being a good human being. Dear listeners, I would like to narrate one incident that took place on the day he was elected president of the Panchayat Board.
I was at that time studying in school. Those days we did not have electricity and we used to study under ration kerosene lamps. I was reading the lessons loudly and I heard a knock at the door. We never used to lock the door in Rameswaram in those days. Somebody opened the door, came in and asked me where my father was? I told him that father had gone for the evening namaz. Then he said, I have brought something for him, can I keep it here? Since my father had gone for namaz, I shouted for my mother to get her permission to receive the item. Since she was also on the namaz there was no response. I asked the person to leave the item on the cot. After that I continued my studies.
I used to learn by reading aloud in my younger days. I was reading loud and fully concentrating on my studies. At that time my father came in and saw a tambalum kept in the cot. He asked me "What is this? Who has given that?" I told him, "Somebody came and has kept this for you". He opened the cover of the tambalum and found there was a costly dhoti, angawastram, some fruits and some sweets and he could see the slip that the person had left behind. I was the youngest child of my father, he really loved me and I also loved him a lot. He was upset at the sight of the tambalum and gifts.
That was the first time I saw him very angry and also that was the first time I had got a thorough beating from him. I got frightened and started weeping. My mother embraced and consoled me. Then my father came and touched my shoulder lovingly with affection and advised me not to receive any gift without his permission. He quoted an Islamic Hadith, which states that, "When the Almighty appoints a person to a position, He takes care of his provision. If a person takes anything beyond that, it is an illegal gain." Then he told me that it is not a good habit. A gift is always accompanied by some purpose and a gift is a dangerous thing. It is like touching a snake and getting the poison in turn. This lesson stands out always in my mind even when I am in my seventies. This incident, taught me a very valuable lesson for my life. It is deeply embedded in my mind.
I would like also to mention the writings in Manu Smriti which states that "By accepting gifts the divine light in the person gets extinguished". Manu warns every individual against accepting gifts for the reason that it places the acceptor under an obligation in favour of the person who gave the gift and ultimately it results in making a person to do things which are not permitted according to law.
I am sharing this thought, with all of you, particularly the young ones, do not be carried away by any gift which comes with a purpose and through which one loses his personality greatly. Do you think, you can follow this in your life? I will be very happy if you can practice this sincerely.
When I think of my second teacher, I am reminded of my childhood days when I was studying in 8th class at the age of 13. I had a teacher, Shri Siva Subramania Iyer. He was one of the very good teachers in our school. All of us loved to attend his class and hear him. One day he was teaching about a bird's flight. He drew a diagram of a bird on the blackboard depicting the wings, tail and the body structure with the head. He explained how birds create the lift and fly. He also explained to us how they change direction while flying. For nearly 25 minutes he gave the lecture with various information such as lift, drag, how the birds fly in a formation of 10, 20 or 30. At the end of the class, he wanted to know whether we understood how birds fly. I said, I did not understand. When I said this, the teacher asked the other students whether they understood or not. Many students said that they also did not understand. He did not get upset by our response since he was a committed teacher.
Our teacher said that he would take all of us to the sea shore. That evening the whole class was at the sea shore of Rameswaram. We enjoyed the roaring sea waves knocking at the sandy hills in the pleasant evening. Birds were flying with sweet chirping voice. He showed the sea birds in formations of 10 to 20 numbers. We saw the marvelous formations of birds with a purpose and we were all amazed. He showed us the birds and asked us to see that when the birds fly, what they looked like. We saw the wings flapping. He asked us to look at the tail portion with the combination of flapping wings and twisting tail. We noticed closely and found that the birds in that condition flew in the direction they desired. Then he asked us a question, "Where the engine is and how it is powered"?
The bird is powered by its own life and the motivation of what it wants. All these things were explained to us within fifteen minutes. We all understood the dynamics from this practical example. How nice it was. Our teacher was a great teacher; he could give us a theoretical lesson coupled with a live practical example available in nature. This is real teaching. I am sure many of the teachers in schools and colleges will follow this example.
For me, it was not merely an understanding of how a bird flies. The bird's flight entered into me and created a special feeling. From that evening, I thought that my future study has to be with reference to flight and flight systems. I am saying this because my teacher's teaching and the event that I witnessed decided my future career. Then one evening after the classes, I asked the teacher, "Sir, please tell me, how to progress further in learning all about flight." He patiently explained to me that I should complete 8th class, and then go to high school, and then I should go to engineering college that may lead to education on flight. If I complete all my education with excellence, I might do something connected with flight sciences. This advice and the bird flying exercise given by my teacher, really gave me a goal and a mission for my life. When I went to college, I took physics. When I went to engineering in Madras Institute of Technology, I took aeronautical engineering.
Thus my life was transformed as a rocket engineer, aerospace engineer and technologist. That one incident of my teacher teaching the lesson, showing the visual live example proved to be a turning point in my life which eventually shaped my profession.
A student during his school life upto 10+2 spends 25,000 hours in the school campus. His life is, more influenced by the teachers and the school environment. Therefore, the school must have the best of teachers with ability to, teach and love teaching and build moral qualities. Teachers should become role models. Similarly, the student must be alert to build himself with best of qualities and to get ignited with a vision for his or her future life.
I would like to share with you another experience with my teacher Prof. Satish Dhawan. First, I worked in Delhi with the Ministry of Defence. Later I joined the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in 1958 at the Aeronautical Development Establishment at Bangalore. There with the advice of the Director, I took up the development of hovercraft. Hovercraft design needed the development of a ducted contra-rotating propeller for creating a smooth flow balancing the torques. I did not know how to design a contra-rotating propeller though I knew how to design a conventional propeller. Some of my friends told me that I could approach Prof. Satish Dhawan of the Indian Institute of Science, who was well known for his aeronautical research, for help.
I took permission from my Director Dr Mediratta and went to Prof Dhawan who was sitting in a small room in the Indian Institute of Science with a lot of books in the background and a blackboard on the wall. Prof Dhawan asked me what the problem was that I wanted to discuss. I explained the problem.. He told me that it was really a challenging task and he would teach me the design if I attended his classes in IISc between 2 pm to 3 pm on all Saturdays for the next six weeks.
He was a visionary teacher. He prepared the schedule for the entire course and wrote it on the black board. He also gave me the reference material and books I should read before I start attending the course. I considered, this as a great opportunity and I started attending the discussion and started meeting him regularly. Before commencing each meeting, he would ask critical questions and assess my understanding of the subject. That was for the first time that I realized how a good teacher prepares himself for teaching with meticulous planning and prepares the student for acquisition of knowledge. This process continued for the next six weeks. I got the capability for designing the contra-rotating propeller. Prof Dhawan told me that I was ready for developing the contra-rotating propeller for a given hovercraft configuration. That was the time I realized that Prof Dhawan was not only a teacher but also a fantastic development engineer of aeronautical systems.
Later during the critical phases of testing, Prof Dhawan was with me to witness the test and find solutions to the problems. After reaching the smooth test phase, the contra-rotating propeller went through 50 hours of continuous testing. Prof Dhawan witnessed the test himself and congratulated me. That was a great day for me when I saw the contra rotating propeller designed by my team performing to the mission requirement in the hovercraft. However, at that time, I did not realize that Prof Dhawan would become chairman, ISRO and that I would get the opportunity to work with him as a project director in the development of the satellite launch vehicle SLV-3 for injecting the Rohini satellite into the orbit. Nature has its own way to link the student's dream and real life later.
This was the first design in my career which gave me the confidence to design many complex aerospace systems in future. The hovercraft could fly just above the ground level carrying two passengers. I was the first pilot for this hovercraft and I could control and maneuver the vehicle in any direction. Through this project I learnt the techniques of designing and developing the contra-rotating propeller. Above all, I learnt that in a project, problems will always crop up; we should not allow problems to be our masters but we should defeat the problems. Then successes will sparkle.
The three teachers in my life; what did they give me? In an integrated way it can be said, that any enlightened human being can be created by three unique characteristics. One is moral value system. That I got from my father the hard way. Secondly, the teacher becoming a role model. Not only does the student learn, but the teacher shapes his life with great dreams and aims. Finally, the education and learning process has to culminate in the creation of professional capability leading to confidence and will power to make a design, to make a product, to make a system, bravely combating many problems. What a fortune and blessing I had from my three teachers.
Among the listeners, there may be many parents, many teachers and a large number of students. Every one of us in this planet creates a page in human history irrespective of who he/she is. I realize my experience is a small dot in human life, but that dot has a life and light. This light let it light many lamps.
My best wishes to all of you on this occasion of Teachers' Day. Thank you.
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