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Story: The Woman Who Used to Make Extra Bread

in Short Story - on 6/11/2016 09:56:00 AM - No comments

A woman baked chapatti (roti) for members of her family and an extra one for a hungry passerby. She kept the extra chapatti on the window sill, for whosoever would take it away. Every day, a hunchback came and took away the chapatti. Instead of expressing gratitude, he muttered the following words as he went his way: “The evil you do remains with you: The good you do, comes back to you!” This went on, day after day. Every day, the hunchback came, picked up the chapatti and uttered the words:

“The evil you do, remains with you: The good you do, comes back to you!” The woman felt irritated. “Not a word of gratitude,” she said to herself… “Everyday this hunchback utters this jingle! What does he mean?” One day, exasperated, she decided to do away with him. “I shall get rid of this hunchback,” she said. And what did she do? She added poison to the chapatti she prepared for him!

As she was about to keep it on the window sill, her hands trembled. “What is this I am doing?” she said. Immediately, she threw the chapatti into the fire, prepared another one and kept it on the window sill. As usual, the hunchback came, picked up the chapatti and muttered the words: “The evil you do, remains with you: The good you do, comes back to you!”

The hunchback proceeded on his way, blissfully unaware of the war raging in the mind of the woman. Every day, as the woman placed the chapatti on the window sill, she offered a prayer for her son who had gone to a distant place to seek his fortune. For many months, she had no news of him.. She prayed for his safe return.

That evening, there was a knock on the door. As she opened it, she was surprised to find her son standing in the doorway. He had grown thin and lean. His garments were tattered and torn. He was hungry, starved and weak. As he saw his mother, he said, “Mom, it’s a miracle I’m here. While I was but a mile away, I was so famished that I collapsed. I would have died, but just then an old hunchback passed by. I begged of him for a morsel of food, and he was kind enough to give me a whole chapatti. As he gave it to me, he said, “This is what I eat everyday: today, I shall give it to you, for your need is greater than mine!”

” As the mother heard those words, her face turned pale. She leaned against the door for support. She remembered the poisoned chapatti that she had made that morning. Had she not burnt it in the fire, it would have been eaten by her own son, and he would have lost his life!

It was then that she realized the significance of the words: “The evil you do remains with you: The good you do, comes back to you!” Do good and Don’t ever stop doing good, even if it is not appreciated at that time. If you like this, share it with others and I bet so many lives would be touched.

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I Have learnt ---- Andy Rooney

in wisdom - on 6/11/2016 09:43:00 AM - No comments

Written by Andy Rooney, a man who had the gift of saying so much with so few words. Rooney used to be on 60 Minutes TV show.

I've learned....

That the best classroom in the world is at the feet of an elderly person.

I've learned....

That when you're in love, it shows.

I've learned ....

That just one person saying to me, 'You've made my day!' makes my day.

I've learned....

That having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the world.

I've learned....

That being kind is more important than being right.

I've learned....

That you should never say no to a gift from a child.

I've learned....

That I can always pray for someone when I don't have the strength to help him in any other way.

I've learned....

That no matter how serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with.

I've learned....

That sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand.

I've learned....

That simple walks with my father around the block on summer nights when I was a child did wonders for me as an adult.

I've learned....

That life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

I've learned....

That we should be glad God doesn't give us everything we ask for.

I've learned....

That money doesn't buy class.

I've learned....

That it's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.

I've learned...

That under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.

I've learned....

That to ignore the facts does not change the facts.

I've learned....

That when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you.

I've learned....

That love, not time, heals all wounds.

I've learned....

That the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am.

I've learned....

That everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile.

I've learned....

That no one is perfect until you fall in love with them.

I've learned...

That life is tough, but I'm tougher.

I've learned....

That opportunities are never lost; someone will take the ones you miss.

I've learned....

That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.

I've learned....

That I wish I could have told my Mom that I love her one more time before she passed away.

I've learned....

That one should keep his words both soft and tender, because tomorrow he may have to eat them.

I've learned....

That a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.

I've learned....

That when your newly born grandchild holds your little finger in his little fist, you're hooked for life.

I've learned....

That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.

I've learned....

That the less time I have to work with, the more things I get done.

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Story: Do you Treat People Fairly?

in ethics, Society - on 6/10/2016 10:07:00 AM - No comments

By Junaid Tahir A friend of mine is CEO of a medium size company, he says that in order to have deep understanding of the work at all levels of the company he tries to work in all domains in the company. This gives him insight of the tasks being done, associated complications, challenges and wisdom to resolve issues and optimize processes. He was telling that the job of their receptionist is tough as it involves a lot of patience. Some weeks back he sat at the reception and received the calls from their clients. Assuming that their call is being attended by the receptionist the customers talked as if they were talking to their servant. They were using harsh, rude or indecent words because of the faults related to the company products. However as soon as he introduced that he is the CEO of the company, the tone of the caller changed immediately.

While I listened to this story, I pondered that we all do the same thing in life. Our speaking tone is based on the social, professional or economical status of the person we are talking to. Which simply means that we don't treat people fairly and equally. We have a different way of communication for different people.

This reminds me of another story: Once a protocol officer asked a lady on how she would greet the Queen of Holland when the Queen visits their city; she said that she has only one set of manner and she uses it all the time and does not want to learn a special protocol to meet and greet the Queen.

So the bottom line is that we should have one set of ethical manners for all. We should be kind, humble and loving equally regardless of the social and educational background, regardless of the current economical and professional post. Humanity deserves equality and all of us should endeavor for the same.

I wrote a similar article earlier about judging people fairly. I believe that if we avoid being judgmental, we will start behaving fairly with all people. Remember, Judging people is the theoretical thing and won't make an external effect until you start showing this to others by treating them unfairly. That means Judging is more of an observatory and thought process stuff whereas treating people is the behavioral and practical thing. Judging wrongly pollutes your brain and treating wrongly pollutes the society hence both should be avoided.

So treat the rich and the poor, the attractive and the unattractive, educated, non-educated and less educated all the same, because each one is the creation of God Himself. Each soul requires fairness. How you treat them, is a reflection of what kind of a person you are !

some recommended articles:

How to Build Trust to Empower Relationships

How to Communicate Effectively

Six Tips for Resolving Conflicts

Shielding Yourself From Negativity

Stop Creating Stupid Passwords

in GoodToKnow, Professional, technology - on 6/10/2016 09:25:00 AM - No comments

Setting up a new social media account? Or managing multiple email accounts? The most important part of these activities is to create a strong password. People mostly don’t want to get into the complexities of creating a strong password and they consider it to be a time consuming feat! Though password creation does require some extra time due the involvement of thought process in setting a secure password, still it is a process worth investing your time.

Every year we collect the worst passwords from all over the internet. The worst passwords of 2015 give you a good idea of the lack of interest of most people have when it comes to create a proper password!

To be honest if you really don’t want to consume your time in creating a password yourself then it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a good password. Use a good password manager to this work for you.

A password manager app takes care of all your passwords, saving them all in its secure database and even letting you come up with super-strong password combinations that you don’t need to remember (thats why it saves them for you). Basically you have to remember one master password for your manager app and you’re good to go. Its a locker for all your passwords and logins.

Now that you’re clear on what they can do for you, lets take a look at some of the popular password managers around.

Lastpass

Lastpass password manager is a good option if you are looking to create a unique & strong password. It also works for teams where you can share the passwords between multiple Lastpass account holders. Go ahead & give it a try.
Download it here: http://www.lastpass.com/

Keepass

Keepass is also a dependable password manager having a simple, open source & user friendly platform but it exhibits certain problems in password sharing and synchronization between devices. If you are looking for a simple password manager that doesn’t need to be synchronized between multiple devices, then Keepass is for you.
Download it here: http://www.keepass.info/

Dashline

Dashlane is another reputable password manager having the property of password sharing but it is one of the costly ones around. But if you want to have one of the best password managers irrespective of their cost, then this manager is exactly what you require.
Download it here: https://www.dashlane.com/

Tips for password creation

Following are some basic guidelines to create a secure and strong password.

Create an acronym from some information that is significant and hence easy to remember for you. Such as, my pet parrot’s birthday is 10 April 1996. This sentence will become Mppbi/Apr,10
You can keep a short phrase or sentence as a password by writing it in your unique way. Such as, 2B-or-Not_2b? It says “To be or not to be?”
You can use the keyboard to create a shape pattern constituting the keys. Such as, %tgbHU8* makes a V on the keyboard. Similarly you can keep changing the shape pattern.
Include the information that you are sure people don’t know about you. Yes that’s the point of privacy!
Keep changing your password after a particular time period.

Tools for password generation
If you are interested to know about more tools for password generation, then visit the following links:

Passwords generator: http://www.passwordsgenerator.net/
PassworG: http://www.passworg.badhim.com/
Safe Passwd: http://www.safepasswd.com/
Random: http://www.random.org/passwords/
PWGen: http://www.pwgen-win.sourceforge.net/

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Source: pic credit

6 Ways to Make Your Emails More Effective

in Professional - on 6/10/2016 09:13:00 AM - No comments

Email has been around since the internet began but we’ve not quite managed to find a replacement for it. There are social media based solution and tools like Slack and Convo but none of them quite eliminate the need for an email address.
Sending an effective email is an art in itself. The way you digitally interact with your colleagues and clients has a major impact and how you are perceived. Last year, employees sent over 112.5 billion business emails every day. The average email user is liable to send or receive about 122 work messages daily, according to statistics published by the Radicati Group, a market research firm for technology trends.
With so many emails flying around, we thought it’d be prudent to discuss 6 ways you can make your emails more effective.

Keep Your Emails Short and Precise

You must have experienced this while receiving emails. The length of the email determines your decision to read the complete email and send a response. You want to respond to emails fast, and in order to do that, the sender needs to keep it short.
Email scheduler Boomerang published a user email analysis, which highlighted that messages comprising 50 to 125 words are good for getting instant replies. Their response rates are a little higher than 50%.
Keeping your emails restricted to three sentences or less helps a lot. Otherwise, why not have a conversation on the phone instead?

Send it at an Appropriate Time

According to the the Boomerang analysis, the emails sent when working hours start and after lunch time had the highest response rates.
This is because people often check their messages immediately after arriving or returning to their work places after breaks.
So if you have to send an urgent email, the best time to send it will be early in the morning.
Protip: Don’t send emails past 5 or 6 p.m. If you must send them, schedule them for the mornings. People like it when you address them during working hours only.

Pause & Think Before Replying

We are all tempted to immediately reply to every email, especially the urgent ones. It is advised to hold on to your replies and take your time to think over them.
Sit on them, form your thoughts, connect the dots.
And then, when you can communicate better with the whole idea fully formed in your mind, draft that email and send it.

Be Moderately Expressive

Even if its a work related conversation, we humans can’t help but express our emotions in any form. The same holds true for emails.
Being expressive is good, if done correctly and moderately. If your email can contains words like “brilliant” or “bad”, they make your email more expressive while maintaining a professional touch.
This essentially implies that you don’t over-do it with unnecessary praise, criticism or aggression.
The idea is to compose your email with more interesting words that will serve the purpose of being moderately expressive.

Maintain a “Wait for” Folder

Whenever you press send on an important email, it almost always sticks in your mind until you get the reply from the other party(s).
This aspect has considerable psychological effects that hampers your work productivity as well. This can cause mental stress as well if not handled properly.
To circumvent such feelings, it is recommended to create a “Wait for” folder in your email inbox. Here you can park all your emails that are yet to be followed up by the other party.
This way not only can you keep track of the important emails awaiting a response, but you can also de-clutter your main inbox. This will considerably help you focus on your work.

Know When An Email isn’t Enough for An Answer

Sometimes its important to recognize the time to get up from your chair and meet the recipient in person.
Email isn’t the be all end all tool. It plays a support role at our work. Its not our work per se.
So if you require an exhaustive discussion with your colleague, don’t start a chain of emails. The prudent thing is to go over to their work place and talk.
Similarly, a phone call will also produce better results in some cases rather than multiple emails.
So what do you think of these tips? Any advice you can share with your fellow readers concerning email etiquette and tips? Let us know in the comments below.

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Health: Honey Treats Sinus Infections

in health - on 6/09/2016 07:50:00 AM - No comments

Unpasteurized honey is one of the top treatments used in New Zealand to treat sinus and throat infections. According to research at the University of Illinois and the University of Amsterdam, the natural antibiotics and enzymes in unpasteurized honey can destroy nearly 100 percent of bacteria and viruses on contact! This includes the bugs that cause painful sinus and throat infections.

For an effective remedy, mix two tablespoons of unpasteurized honey into your coffee or tea to prevent painful infections. Use darker honeys buckwheat or wildflower for the best results.

16 Mispronounced Words

in GoodToKnow - on 6/09/2016 07:49:00 AM - No comments

Yes English is complicated and always accommodating of words from other languages. This is one of the reasons why vocabulary plays such an important role in language learning and excellence. Although most of us may be well acquainted with everyday English words, most of us are mispronouncing them with realizing. These everyday mispronounced words could also be a result of our focus on complicated words. Many of us are so engrossed in extending our vocabulary and learning new words that we never bother to check if the ones we know are pronounced correctly by us. Any given language is not just about the grammar and meanings, but also a lot about how each word is enunciated.

This article on everyday mispronounced words is an attempt to highlight the right way to pronounce certain words we think we speak correctly. The images have been created by Mintified.com. They are creative and extremely informative. If you are the kinds who is more or less confident about the use of English, but pronunciation has always been a problem than this is the right article for you. The images can also be used as flash cards for language training purposes. Since they have broken down the syllables, it helps much more in learning faster.
With English now being an absolute necessity no matter where you go, this one could really help you in getting it right. Have a look!
Correct pronunciation of cabin

If there are anymore words that you feel we have missed out on, please share in comments. Also, the pronunciation pattern is independent of the dialect and the British-American English pattern. It is possible that some of you may find a dialectal variation. The designs here have been made according to the Standard English Dialect. Kindly refrain from imposing one kind of a pronunciation over the other.
You may also like Mispronounced Food Words.

Blog Archive

Story: The Woman Who Used to Make Extra Bread

I Have learnt ---- Andy Rooney

Story: Do you Treat People Fairly?