starry starry night: May 2007

Who Are We?

"We can live a while lifetime of friendships and complicity, we can bring up children, have sex every night, reach orgasm and still feel that there is a terrible emptiness about it all, that something important is missing."

"Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing."

Parents

Heard on Oprah :

" Dont try to be your child's friend. They will have a million friends in life, but only one mom and only one dad. Step up and be the parent. Be enough for them. "

Ahem...did I just admit Ive seen Oprah...aaah...umm.... whatever :D

Kerela

Back from a 7 days trip to Kerela. Awesome it was..well almost. Details, maybe later.

Till then- enjoy these pics :

A History Of The World

According To Student Bloopers.....

This is what is the history of the world is :

"The inhabitants of Egypt were called mummies. They lived in the Sarah Dessert and traveled by Camelot. The climate of the Sarah is such that the inhabitants have to live elsewhere, so certain areas of the dessert are cultivated by irritation. The Egyptians built the Pyramids in the shape of a huge triangular cube. The Pramids are a range of mountains between France and Spain. The Bible is full of interesting caricatures. In the first book of the Bible, Guinesses, Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. One of their children, Cain, asked "Am I my brother's son?".........................

read more here.....

Solving Tough Problems

Book : Solving Tough Problems - An open way of talking, listening, and creating new realities

Author : Adam Kahane

Finally i read and finished this book in my train rides to my grandma's place. It doesnt talk about anythin revolutionary.. well about the power of talking and listening to create wonderful solutions...

i quite liked it...

think it also gave me a perspection on a few ways which we can take our discussions forward and solve all kinds of problems in our lives. While the examples in the book deal mainly with the author using his skills to solve world level problems, he keeps it real enough to apply to us.

A few quotes/lines which I liked from the book are given below. They are both the one's written by Adam and what he adapted from various sources.

" The root of not listening is knowing "

" One of the reasons that future cannot be predicted is that it can be influenced "

" People were willing to accept being free citizens on the street but serfs at work "

" If youre not part of the problem, you cannot be part of the solution "

" What is most personal is most universal "

" Our biggest impediment to hearing is our impulse to talk rather than to listen, to make a judgement rather than an observation "

" Silence has an incredible capacity to bond. You simply remain silent and nobody has to say anything. We're there, all of us together "

" The answers to difficult problems is simple, not easy "

" Conflict isnt usually the result of your rational argument vs. my rational argument. Its a result of your rational argument hitting my blind spot and vice versa. "

" If talking openly means being willing to expose to others what is inside of us, then listening openly means being willing to expose ourselves to something new from others. "

" I am not my ideas, and so, you and I can reject them without rejecting me "