Original Quote #1: Lasting Change

Lasting change is the consequence of true love..

Idea #44: Simple Life Tips (from a email forward)

Saw these simple life tips in an email forward. Posting them as a reminder to myself to follow them.

• Look People in the eye while you talk

• Choose your life's mate carefully. From this decision will come 90 per cent of all your happiness or misery

• Never deprive someone of hope; it might be all that they have

• When playing games with children, let them win

• Give people a second chance, but not a third

• Be modest. A lot was accomplished before you were born

• Keep it simple

• Beware of the person who has nothing to lose

• Don't burn bridges. You'll be surprised how many times you have to cross the same river

• Live your life so that your epitaph could read, No Regrets

• Be bold. When you look back on life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the one's you did

• Never waste an opportunity to tell someone you love them

• Remember no one makes it alone. Be quick to acknowledge those who helped you

• Take charge of your attitude. Don't let someone else choose it for you

• Show respect for everyone who works for a living, regardless of how trivial their job

• Remember that 80 per cent of the success in any job is based on your ability to deal with people

• Last but not least.........Don't expect life to be fair

Idea #43: Sugarless but Tasty Nevertheless!

“Sugarless but Tasty Nevertheless” is a concept restaurant specially aimed at people with Diabetes and branded as such. By 2010 India will have close to 60million people with Diabetes and is already the world’s capital for Diabetes.

As we all know Diabetes is largely a lifestyle and diet related disease. Although occurrence of this disease is influenced by genetic factors the control and care is much dependent on change in lifestyle and diet.

Nowadays it’s a trend, a fashion to make sugar free sweets and packed sugar and oil free snacks which are showing up in many retail outlets. These concepts however have not spread effectively to restaurants and eating out at large. Mostly hotels have a selection of salads and soups and some so called healthy food options but mostly it ends up being a sham. Take for example a simple dish like Dal Tadka, the amount of ghee and oil that most tadkas have defeats the purpose of taking Dal which most people assume is healthy because it’s only plain Dal, they just don’t consider the oil content and unfortunately hotels do not provide calorie or other nutrient related information. Same is the case even if you take soups and salads, they end being so rich with cream etc that it defeats the purpose of ordering these dishes.

“Sugarless but Tasty Nevertheless” is new, path breaking concept in restaurants sector. The restaurant promises to use no added sugar, use extremely low quantities of oil and publish calorie and nutrition information for everything that is on the menu which in itself will be developed very scientifically and by a panel of experts, every ingredient is carefully assessed keeping a diabetic in mind.

However, just because the restaurant is focussing on diabetes related diet it will not compromise on the taste. Every dish on the menu will be tasty beyond imagination and people will not feel compromised about the taste. Also the restaurant will cater to regular day to day Indian + popular international dishes and not some obscure exotic dishes. Lastly the dishes will be affordably priced to cater to all strata of the society.

To summarise the USP of “Sugarless but Tasty Nevertheless” will be the following,

• A restaurant chain that is specifically focussed on diet of Diabetic people
• The restaurant will be branded as a restaurant for the diabetic and not in some garb of a health food/nature fresh restaurant
• Will offer regular day to day food but made in very healthy ways and with published information and ratified by experts
• Pricing will be affordable
• While being very healthy the food will not be compromised on taste

Idea #42: An International Day of Silence

Last weekend I had the opportunity to be with Master in Manapakkam ashram, Chennai. It was the Deewali weekend and we left for Chennai by train on Friday Morning. The Shatabdi Express was very comfortable and we hardly felt the journey as we slept through most of it.

Upon reaching Chennai I always feel at home and especially Manapakkam ashram is very natural and welcoming. The 3 days in the presence of the Master was very rejuvenating with meditation and sleep being the predominant and alternating activities!

Nowadays I realise the value of silence, especially silence of the mind. They say cleanliness is close to godliness, I think the person who said this meant inner cleanliness of the mind and thought and not just external cleanliness of the body. I get this recurring idea that it would perhaps be nice to have an “international day of silence”, a day when people around the world observe silence for 24hours. No talking, No TV, No Music, No Entertainment, No Traffic noise, nothing, just human activity related silence for 24hours.

It’s hard to speculate on what will be the impact of 6billion people observing silence for 24hours but I would imagine that for a change the birds, trees and animals will stand a chance of being heard! You never know, they make have a thing or two to tell us and for once we may be truly ‘listening’ to nature! Any takers?

Even Dea Picture Question #1

If you were to fill the circle in the below picture with one of the 2 colors (blue or red) which one would you fill it with?

What does this mean #2

Pushpa mala prasangena sutram shirasi dharyatey..

What does this mean #1

Alone but not lonely!

Idea #39- Triview- Taking Chance (2009)

“Taking Chance” is a wonderfully sensitive movie. Wish the world was filled with people who are as sensitive as the characters shown in the movie.

Idea #38: dydi

“dydi” (stands for ‘did you do it’) is a social activity tool + game. It’s a random activity generator for individuals and social groups. Here’s how it works,

1. The user needs to sign up with ‘dydi’ and during registration provide lots of specific inputs about interests, daily activities, passions, goals, swot analysis etc

2. User need may or may not create social groups by adding other users

3. Based on the profile details + details of others within the social group + a certain amount of randomness + calendar details of the user and others in the profile, ‘dydi’ will assign ‘specific/pointless/fun/profound/etc etc types of activities to the user or the user can ask ‘dydi’ to assign activities to others within the social group

4. Activities can be for the min/hr/day/week

5. The receiver of these activities will complete the activity, submit a summary and earn points. The points can be used by the groups or the individual user to gift goodies to one another

6. The activities could be anything and is generated by ‘dydi’. Users cannot create their own activities but can create activities for other but has to be submitted to ‘dydi’ which will schedule/assign to the intended user

Idea #37: Triview- Awakenings

Awakenings, awakens you to the value of simple things that we take for granted. Robert De Niro and Julie Kavner are touching and real. Don’t miss if you haven’t seen it yet.