Set your Priorities right

A professor stood before his Philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous "yes."

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. "The golf balls are the important things - your God, family, your children, your health, your friends, and your favorite passions - things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

"The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car. "The sand is everything else--the small stuff. "If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.

"The same goes for life. "If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. "Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. "Take time to get medical checkups. "Take your partner out to dinner. "Play another 18. "There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. "Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. "Set your priorities. "The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. "It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a cup of coffee with a friend."

The man who did not have an email account

A Jobless man applied for the position of 'office boy' at Microsoft. The HR manager interviewed him then watched him cleaning the floor as a test.'You are employed' he said. Give me your e-mail address and I'll send you the application to fill in, as well as date when you may start.

The man replied 'But I don't have a computer, neither an email'. 'I'm sorry', said the HR manager. If you don't have an email, that means you do not exist. And who doesn't exist, cannot have the job.'

The man left with no hope at all. He didn't know what to do, with only $10 in his pocket. He then decided to go to the supermarket and buy a 10Kg tomato crate. He then sold the tomatoes in a door to door round. In less than two hours, he succeeded to double his capital. He repeated the operation three times, and returned home with $60.

The man realized that he can survive by this way, and started to go everyday earlier, and return late. Thus, his money doubled or tripled everyday. Shortly, he bought a cart, then a truck, and then he had his own fleet of delivery vehicles.

5 years later, the man is one of the biggest food retailers in the US ... He started to plan his family's future, and decided to have a life insurance. He called an insurance broker, and chose a protection plan. When the conversation was concluded the broker asked him his email. The man replied,'I don't have an email.' The broker answered curiously, 'You don't have an email, and yet have succeeded to build an empire. Can you imagine what you could have been if you had an e mail?!!'

The man thought for a while and replied, 'Yes, I'd be an office boy at Microsoft!'

Moral of the story

Moral 1 Internet is not the solution to your life.

Moral 2 If you don't have Internet, and work hard, you can be a millionaire.

- Source: Mail forward. Origin unknown

There is no time like ‘Now’

One day a Maths teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down. It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.

That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.

On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. 'Really?' she heard whispered. 'I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!' and, 'I didn't know others liked me so much,' were most of the comments.

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.

Several years later, one of the students was killed in 'Kargil' war and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never attended Funeral of a serviceman before. He looked so handsome, so mature.

The place was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk. The teacher was the last one to bless.

As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. 'Were you Sanjay's math teacher?' he asked. She nodded: 'yes.' Then he said: 'Sanjay talked about you a lot.'

After the funeral, most of Sanjay's former classmates were there. Sanjay's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher. 'We want to show you something,' his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket 'They found this on Sanjay when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.'

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Sanjay's classmates had said about him.

'Thank you so much for doing that,' Sanjay's mother said. 'As you can see, Sanjay treasured it.'

All of Sanjay's former classmates started to gather around. Arjun smiled rather sheepishly and said, 'I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home.'
Prithwiraj's wife said, ' Prithwiraj asked me to put his in our wedding album.'

'I have mine too,' Rashmi said. 'It's in my diary'. Then Deepali, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. 'I carry this with me at all times,' Deepali said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: 'I think we all saved our lists'

That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Sanjay and for all his friends who would never see him again.

The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be. So please, tell the people you care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.

- Source: Mail forward. Origin unknown

'Short' hand!

Ever seen a steno sit and take down notes that the boss goes on dictating with the pencil on a notepad moving swiftly. Moving to a closer range you’d see that the notes that she has made are hardly comprehensible and make no sense to you as they look as merely curves drawn in many shapes. Before you jump to any conclusions about the steno playing up with her job let me tell you that she’s actually using stenography popularly called as ‘shorthand’.

Stenography, or often called shorthand, is any writing system that uses symbols or shortcuts that can be made to represent letters or the alphabet, words or phrases. (Stenography is from the Greek words meaning “narrow writing”). The purpose of Shorthand is to be able to write approximately as fast as someone speaks, in order to take down every thing that is said.Systems of shorthand were in use in the ancient world.

Beginning in 63 BC the speeches of the Roman orator Cicero were taken down in shorthand by his secretary. Marcus Tullius Tiro. The Tironian system was introduced into Roman schools and was used for centuries in the early Christian Church.Modern shorthand systems originated and developed in England. Timothy Bright introduced the first system in his book ‘Characterie: An Arte of Shorte, Swifte, and Secrete Writing by Character.’

Thirteen more such systems are known to have been introduced over the next 50 years. The early methods were called orthographic, or alphabetic, because they followed normal spelling. They did, however omit silent letters. The first teacher to make a break with the orthographic system was Philip Gibbs in 1736. His method was phonetic, based on distinguishing between long and short vowels. The two most widely used shorthand systems are phonetic: Pitman and Gregg.

Isaac Pitman published his ‘Stenographic Sound Hand’ in 1837. He classified all the sounds in English and arranged his method of writing accordingly. Pitman characters have simple geometric forms, and the curves are part of a true circle. Some letters are written with a light stroke, some with a heavy (shaded) stroke. The light and shaded strokes of the same form usually represent closely related sounds. Gregg based the curved forms of his alphabet on the parts of an ellipse instead of the circle. This gives Gregg shorthand a flowing cursive form of writing like longhand. Gregg has no shaded outlines. It does not use position and may be written on unruled paper.The earliest recorded instance of shorthand being used is the system used by the historian Xenophon to write the memoirs of Socrates. The art of shorthand died out in the middle Ages because of its imagined associations with witchcraft.

Samuel Pepys was an English naval administrator and diarist. His Diary (1660 - 69) is a unique record of the daily life of the period, the historical events of the Restoration, the manners and scandals of the court, naval administration, and Pepys's own interests, weaknesses, and intimate feelings. Written in shorthand, it was not deciphered until 1825.Thus these codes used do simplify the work of man and do help him to save both time and energy. Also as only a trained person could decode it the message would be safe from the hands of superfluous people who might otherwise tamper and distort the message.

A unique system like shorthand hence finds many uses in the routine jobs of the office. It can also be used to make confidential notes which the writer would not want to reveal to each and every reader. Who knows might be you could even write your diary in shorthand to keep the things written a mystery like Pepys did!