Horses to Vijaynagar

This is an awesome and thrill inspiring book written by Monisha Mukundan, especially for young readers. But once you read it, you cannot stop reading it, for you yourself will be journeying with Manuela and Ferninand as they race away from their brother to Vijaynagar, where they seek a better life. You will come time by time again to read it, no matter what your age. I got this book as a school prize, and it is one of my most cherished books, and I do love to read it again and again. The story goes like, Manuela and her brother Ferninand are orphans living with their brother and without money. The opportunity to escape from their village in Goa and put an end to their misery comes in the form of Arabian horses bound for Vijaynagar. In a bid to slip out of the village turns into a thrilling adventure packed with challenges, as they find out that there is more to the horses than it just seems, and forces Manuela to disguise herself as a boy.

Kaijudo Code

I make no excuses.

My actions are my voice.

I have no enemies.

My opponent is my teacher.

I need no deceitful tricks.

My character is my sword.

I think not of quitting.

My courage is my secret weapon.

I know not of defeat.

My experience becomes my strength.

- Duel Masters

The Carrot, the Coffee Beans and the Egg

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word.In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see." "Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?" Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity -- boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water."Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?" Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you.When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

An Interview with God

This is something I picked up on the internet.

I dreamed that I had an interview with God.

“So you would like to interview me?” God asked

“If you have the time”, I said.

God smiled. “My time is eternity.”

“What questions do you have in mind for me?”

“What surprises you most about humankind?”

God answered…

“That they get bored with childhood,
They rush to grow up, and then
Long to be children again.”

“That they lose their health to make money…
And then lose their money to restore their health.”


“That by thinking anxiously about the future,
They forget the present,
Such that they live neither in the present nor in the future.”

“That they live as though they will never die,
And die as if they had never lived.”

God’s hand took mine
And we were silent for a while.

And then I asked…

“As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons
You want your children to learn?”

“To learn that they cannot make anyone love them,
They can only let themselves be loved.”

“To learn that it is not good
To compare themselves with others.”

“To learn to forgive by
Practicing forgiveness.”


“To learn that it takes a few seconds
To open profound wounds in those they love,
But it can take many years to heal them.”

“To learn that a rich person is not the one
Who has the most
But the one who needs the least.”

“To learn that there are people
Who love them dearly,
But simply have not yet learned
How to express or show their feelings.”

“To learn that two people
Can look at the same thing
And see it differently.”

“To learn that it is not enough that they
Forgive one another, but also forgive themselves.”


“Thank you for your time,” I said humbly.

“Is there anything else that you would like your children to know?”

God smiled and said,
“Just know that I am here… always.”

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count, but the life in your years that count.

- Abraham Lincoln

The Three Musketeers

Today's book is the three musketeers. This eternal classic revolves around four men- the Three Musketeers- Athos, Porthos and Aramis, and another young man who is striving to become a musketeer, D' Artagnan. When D' Artagnan comes to Paris to seek his fortune, he finds himself challenged by the three of the King's Royal Musketeers. Thus ensues a journey to save the king from the betrayal of a cunning bishop, and on the way also learns of the killer of his father, who was a renowned musketeer. And on this journey, Athos, Porthos and Aramis will help D' Artagnan to save the king, and also, on the way, find the way to his destiny.

Egypt

A treasury of myths,

A land of mysteries,

A blend of past with the present,

A page out of history.

A musuem in itself,

A storehouse of ancient culture,

The land of the pharoahs,

Has within the seventh wonder.

Cairo or AI- Quahira,

The largest city of Egypt,

A country of Arab culture,

Amidst the Sahara desert.

Like a crown to Africa,

With jewels of artifacts,

And the sphinx on guard,

Are the pyramids proud and tall.

A glance into the past,

Lika a journey back in time,

Is a trip to Egypt,

The gift of the Nile.

- Unknown

Life may be like a rollercoaster, you know they have its ups and downs, and it could end in a split second... the only difference is you can't get another ticket and tyr it again. If you keep your eyes open and look ahead, it coild be the best ride you ever tried. But if close your eyes, then you can really miss out on the great things. So, who are you going to be?

- JV Montana

The Fever Bird

The Fever Bird sang out last night.

I could not sleep, try as I might.

My brain was split, my spirit raw.

I looked into the garden and saw

The shadow of the amaltas

Shake slightly on the moonlit grass.

Unseen, the bird cried out its grief,

Its lunacy without relief;

Three notes repeated closer, higher,

Soaring than sinking down like fire

Only to breathe the night and soar,

As crazed, as desperate as before.

I shivered in the midnight heat,

And smelt the sweat that soaked my sheet.

And now I hear again,

The call that skewers my brain,

The call- the brain- sick triple note-

A bone of pain stuck in its thrat.

I am so tired, I could weep,

Mad bird for God's sake let me sleep!

Why do you cry like one possessed?

When will you rest? Oh, when will you rest?

Why wait all night till alll but I

Lie sleeping in the house, then cry?

Why do you scream in my ear,

What no one else but I can hear?

- from the book 'A Suitable Boy'

The Cherry tree

Six years have passed
Since I dug a cherry tree into the grass.
"I want a tree of my own", I said
Watered it once and went to bed.
And forgot; but cherrt trees have a way of growing
Though no one's caring very much or knowing,
And suddenly that summer at the end of May,
I found a cherry tree had come to stay.
It was small, a tiny child,
Lost in the tall grass running wild.
Goats ate the leaves, the grasscutter's scythe,
Split it apart, and a monsoon blight,
Shrivelled its slender stem... Even so,
Next spring, I saw three more new shoots grow.
The young tree reached for the Sun.
The months passed, one by one,
And we went away the following year,
On a holiday in Kashmir.
When I came home, again I saw,
A cherry tree growing at my door.
Six feet high, my own dark cherry,
And- I could hardly believe it- a berry!
Ripe and shining from the sun,
Hung from a branch- just one!
And the next year there were blossoms small,
Pink, delicate, and quick to fall,
At the smallest breath, the sleepiest breeze.
I lay in the grass, at ease,
Looked up through the leaves,
At the blue clear sky, And at the finches as they flew
And flitted through the dappled green
While happy bees drank
Nectar from each blossom, and the sun sank
And the stars turned in the sky,
And moon moths, singing crickets and I,
Praised night and stars and tree;
A small, tall cherry tree, planted by me.

- Ruskin Bond

The Notebook

This book by Nicholas Sparks ia heart warming and enriching story told by a frail old man living in an old age home to an old woman there- about two people falling in love on a vacation. Then they parted. The girl had to go back and now has to marry a successful lawyer, who is rich, handsome, loves her a lot, but apparently has no time for her. Now she decides to go back to meet the man for the last time who she loved a lot.... and maybe even now. But the man never forgot her, loves her passionately still, and never will love another liked he loved her. He doesn't know where she had gone, why she had gone... or worse still, whether she'll come back. She comes back to him, thinking, she'll just tell him and go, but she can't, not now, not forever. But then her mother and fiance find out, a few hidden secrets are coming out, and now she has to choose whether she wants to marry a man who will give her all, or a man, that is her all...