"Abou Ben Adhem" -- By Leigh Hunt

Dear All,

I stumbled up on this long forgotten interesting poem that helped me elevate my thinking on religions, rituals, faith and beliefs and its essence stands as a north star in the quest for unison with the supreme.

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)

Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,

And saw, within the moonlight in his room,

Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,

An Angel writing in a book of gold:

Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,

And to the Presence in the room he said,

"What writest thou?" The Vision raised its head,

And with a look made of all sweet accord

Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."

"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"

Replied the Angel. Abou spoke more low,

But cheerily still; and said, "I pray thee, then,

Write me as one who loves his fellow men."

The Angel wrote, and vanished. The next night

It came again with a great wakening light,

And showed the names whom love of God had blessed,

And, lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest!

Paradox of Our Age - Dalai Lama

We have bigger houses but smaller families

more conveniences, but less time

We have more degrees, but less sense

more knowledge, but less judgement

more experts, but more problems

more medicines, but less healthiness

We've been all the way to the moon and back

but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbour

We built more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication

We have become long on quantity, but short on quality
These are times of fast foods but slow digestion

Tall man but short character

Steep profits but shallow relationships

It's a time when there is much in the window, but nothing in the room

- Dalai Lama

The 26/11 Hysteria and the Aftermath

The 26/11 mumbai terrorist carnage Hysteria and the Aftermath has gripped us all. There have been a lot of discussions, talks, rallys, political fallouts and upheavals and god knows what not but we are still a long way from the firm and responsible solutions it.

Everyone in India is of the view that they should stop voting and paying taxes to the government. I dont agree with this view. However, I hold slightly more economic and social view to all this.

We have all (including the media & the politicians) missed the point completely.

The solutions are not that we should not vote or we should not pay taxes or anything of the sort. The solutions rather the questions are very simple and commonsensical -

1. How many of us will go out there and educate the poor and down trodden people and make them economically independent Give them employment of any sort.
   
   
2. How many of us will educate a child and show him / her the meaning of right or wrong in life so that he / she can make the right choices and not become a anti-social element.
   
   
3. How many of us will stop honking unnecessarily when we are driving and the vehicle ahead of us has stopped on a red traffic signal.
   
   
4. How many of us will stop crossing the busy roads and use the various subways and skywalks the government has made for us to safely walk and cross the busy road.
   
   
5. How many of us will stop driving like maniacs with complete disregard for others on the road and for once drive like responsible drivers.
   
   
6. How many of us will wear helmets while driving two wheelers.
   
   
7. How many of us will not talk on our mobile phones while driving.
   
   
8. How many of us will not let our mobile phones ring in a movie theatre.
   
   
9. How many of us will stop vandalising the various historic monuments with "GEETA I LOVE" messages engraved on stone pillars / walls.
   
   
10. How many of us will stop throwing garbage on the road side and wait for the garbage van from the Municipality to pick it up.
    
    
11. How many of us will stop spitting and urinating wherever we feel like (after all we pay taxes, dont we).
    
    
12. How many of us will stop bribing the babus and other administrators in the various government departments for our work to be done.
    
    
13. How many of us will stop or lessen the misuse or wasting electricity, water etc.
    
    
14. How many of us will stop refereing people on the basis of their caste and religion and treat them as Indians (EVEN INDIAN MUSLIMS).
    
    
15. How many of us will not hesitate to go to the police for help instead of the media.
    
    
16. How many of us will send bouquets and greeting cards to the police on any occassion or to appreciate the good work they do?
    
    
17. How many of us have forced the governements to change the pay scale of our security forces which we all know is grossly underpaid thus encouraging corruption.
    
    
18. How many of us has ever used the consumer courts and forums to get redressals for any faulty or fake product / service from companies.
    
    
19. How many of us have actually thought about the fact that our education system has made us literates but not educated.
    
    
20. How many of us have actually jointly fought for our rights and not individually.
    
    
21. How many of us will not allow media to dictate our lives.
    
    
22. How many of us will stop idolising our cinema and cricket stars and celebrities who we emulate blindly and live our lives accordingly.
    
    

There are many more serious issues which need to be highlighted.

• Our political system is rotten because we have over the past 60 years allowed it to rot.
• Politicians are using us because we have allowed them to use us for the past 60 years.
• Our society is backward thinking because we have not allowed forward thinking people to live amongst us.

WE HAVE TAKEN OUR FREEDOM FOR GRANTED AND MISUSED IT. WE HAVE BECOME SELFISH AND MONEY AND LIFESTYLE MATTER TO US MOST THAN ANYTHING ELSE IN THIS WORLD.

There are enough opportunistic people in this world who will use our fickle mindedness and our insecurities for their personal gains and keep on doing it till either we all are elimited or we take action and eliminate these opportunistic people.

TERRORISTS (no matter if they are muslims or non muslims) are having a ball of a time because not only our political system is a sham but we Indians are shams as well. we talk big and do nothing.

Its time we do our part rather than hold mass rallys and candle light shows for the media to rake in the moolah and TRPs.

We need to learn from countries like Singapore and the US (not refering to 9/11). (I am refering to the change in US post Pearl Harbour), they havent allowed any country or any one externally or internally to rot them. The people along with the governments in these countries have ensured that they live in peace and build a model country and not an insecure country like India, Pakistan, Koreas, Africa etc.

Let's start a revolution and change India the way it needs to actually be changed.

Koh Chang

I & my wife recently went on a holiday to Koh Chang a small but beautiful island off Trat province east Thailand. It was an amazing experience for us. The four nights we spent at a quite sea side resort will always be a part of our lives.

Here is a little bit about Koh Chang and our pictures follow:

Koh Chang is the second largest island of Thailand (largest island in the Ko Chang Marine Park archipelago), located on the Thai east coast 310 km away from Bangkok near the border to Cambodia in the Gulf of Thailand.

The name means Elephant Island. Ko Chang was named for the elephant shape of its headland, although elephants are not indigenous to the island. At present, there are 8 villages in total. It is a mountainous island and Khao Salak Phet is the highest peak of all at 744 metres. Visitors are also met with several waterfalls, splendid reefs and rainforests. The island has an area of approximately 429 square kilometers. Ko Chang was previously an unsettled island but it is now important as a harbour for ships to escape from the monsoon, and dietary or fresh water resources, especially at Ao Salak Phet or Ao Salat which is well known to pirates, Hai Lam Chinese and Vietnamese. Ko Chang is surrounded by 51 islands. To the east of the area lies Cambodia and to the west, the Thai province of Chanthaburi. Ko Chang too is one of Thailand most beautiful islands with some white sandy beaches, some half deserted. Some of the beaches are rocky in parts though so it doesn't have ideal swimming beaches like Phuket. The island is also home to a wide range of wildlife, including a good selection of birds, snakes, deer and a number of elephants. The island and its vicinity are great places for snorkeling, diving and jungle hiking.



We are adding some of the pictures we took of this beautiful place. we hope you all would also ike them and be encouraged to visit this beautiful place. If you do please contact the persons below at Bangkok and Koh Chang for help and assistance.

Mr. Suriya (Bangkok) - Suriya Tours - suriyatour@yahoo.com

Dr. David (Koh Chang) - Owner Koh-Chang resortel - kohchang-resortel@hotmail.com

You can also email me at prabhjot_jolly@hotmail.com and I can guide and advice you on your trip to Koh Chang.

Have fun. :)

Warm regards

Conferencing in the Car

Driving around while seemingly talking to an imaginary friend in the front seat is no longer strange, and in California, it's the law. But "hands-free" can still be painful for the other half of the conversation, and the ear you choose to clip a gadget onto. The Aura Mobile BT from Spracht is a Bluetooth conference phone that works just as well in the car as it does in your hotel room-turned-office. On a three-hour trek through northern California driving 80 mph in a noisy car, we tested whether it's worth the $129.99 price tag.

Over the course of eight or so calls, there was universal agreement that the sound quality was better than putting a cell phone on speaker or the average Bluetooth headpiece. People on the other line could still tell it was on speaker, but the words didn't appear chopped and there was no need to repeat constantly. Several felt that there was less ambient noise. A few key technical specs from Spracht:

• F-duplex (93%) operation for simultaneous two-way conversations without clipping.
  
  
• M acoustic profiles, which are automatically adjusted based on the type of communication.
  
  
• F 3-wattamplifie.
  
  
• D speakers generating 95 d.
  
  
• N-cancelling internal microphone at 44 db ± 4 d.
  
  
• 4 hours talk time on a single charge, standby time 24 hour.

No software is necessary to get started, and the cell phone connected quickly and easily. A slick embedded visor clip deploys out of the speaker bottom for use in the car, ensuring you won't lose some add-on accessory. The spring-loaded design collapses it back into the device for use on a table or desk. Placing calls still requires using the phone keypad, but maybe a voice-activated model will come next? Incoming calls ring quite loudly, but a slight disappointment was finding no ringer options. However, if the incoming call registers in your address book, the Aura Mobile will actually read out the name (so be careful with your nicknames). A car charger is included for long trips.

For corporate folks, the conference-room capability is also worth noting and probably justifies the cost. Putting a standard cell phone on speaker only works if everyone in the room is within six inches of the microphone. The Aura Mobile eliminates that need, and slips easily into your computer bag. It also functions with PCs or Macs for VoIP calls. So is it worth the $129.99? Tough to say, but it's still hanging on our visor.