Goan Fisherman

A boat docked in a tiny Goan village. A tourist from Mumbai complimented the Goan fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them. 'Not very long,' answered the fisherman. 'But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?' asked the Mumbaite. The Goan fisherman explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family. The Mumbaite asked, 'But what do you do with the rest of your time?' 'I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, play guitar, sing a few songs... I have a full life.' The Mumbaite interrupted, 'I have an MBA from IIM-A, and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat.' 'And after that?' asked the Goan. 'With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Panjim, or even Mumbai. From there you can direct your huge new enterprise.' 'How long would that take?' asked the Goan. 'Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years,' replied the Mumbaite. 'And after that?' 'Afterwards? Well my Friend, That's when it gets really interesting,' chuckled the Mumbaite, 'When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!' 'Millions? Really? And after that?' asked the Goan. 'After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings doing what you like with your buddies.' 'With all due respect sir, but that's exactly what I am doing now. So what's the point wasting 25 years?' asked the Goan. And the moral of the story is? Know where you're going in life. You may already be there! Life in the present world is indeed a rat race, more like a Merry-go-round. Many who have good qualifications too do not know where they are going in life. They just move in circles. Do not waste your time. Its precious. -- O.A.K.

YES!+ ...Zindagi Milegi na Dobaara

Just heard the title track from ROCK ON. And i was in the composer mood. Then I had an idea of making some changes to the lyrics of the song. And ...Voila! A new YES!+ song was created!!! Sing it with the tune of "Rock On" Dil Kya Kehta Hai Mera Kya Main Bataoon Tum Ye Samjhoge Shayad Main Pagal Hoon YES!+ karke maine jo khusi paayi hai Tum Ye Samjhoge Shayad Main Pagal Hoon Dil Karta Hai Tv Tower Pe Main Chadd Jaoon Chilla Chilla Ke Main Ye Sabse Kehdoon YES!+… Hai Ye Waqt Ka Ishaara YES!+… Har Youth ko Pukaara YES!+….Yuhin Dekhta Hai Kya Tu YES!+….Zindagi Millegi Na Dobaara… Dil Karta Hai Sadkon Par Zor Se Gaoon Sab Apne Apne Ghar Ki Khidki Kholen Phir Main Aise Josheelay Intro-talk Sunaoon Mere Talks Ko Sunke Sab Ye Bolen YES!+… Hai Ye Waqt Ka Ishaara YES!+… Har Youth ko Pukaara YES!+….Yuhin Dekhta Hai Kya Tu YES!+….Zindagi Millegi Na Dobaara… Jaise Jeene Ko Dil Chahe Jee Waise Tu Meri To Hai Bas Ye Raaye Ki Jitne Jaldi ho sake YES!+ Karle Tu YES!+… Hai Ye Waqt Ka Ishaara YES!+… Har Youth ko Pukaara YES!+….Yuhin Dekhta Hai Kya Tu YES!+….Zindagi Millegi Na Dobaara… YES!+… Hai Ye Waqt Ka Ishaara YES!+… Har Youth ko Pukaara YES!+….Yuhin Dekhta Hai Kya Tu YES!+….Zindagi Millegi Na Dobaara… I thank Shank-Ehsaan-Loy for composing such cool music

Mr. Gate at Pearly Gate

Finally Mr. Gate dies and reaches Pearly gate. The angel glances Mr. Gates records and says, "You have done equal amount of good and bad work. So you can choose whether you want to be, in heaven or hell." Mr Gate thinks for a while and asks, "I want to check out both the places before deciding where I want to be in." The angel agrees and escorts him to heaven first. In the heaven, all people are wearing white robes. Doing the regular household chores. The same work that people do on earth at home. But every soul is living a very happy life. No Worries at all!!! Then the angel takes Mr. Gate to hell. Astonishingly, the scene here is different. There a beautiful beach surrounded by the most beautiful girls Mr. Gate had ever seen. He is enchanted by scene and could not believe his eyes. The hell seemed more luxurious than the heaven? So Mr. Gate finally elects to enter the hell. The angel asks for confirmation. Gleefully, Mr. Gate affirms. The moment he enters the hell, the scene changes. A monstrous fella holds Mr. Gate and puts him in a furnace. He screams and says, "This is cheating, this is not the scene you showed me? Where is the beach, Where are the girls? The angels replies coolly, "Well sir, That was the screen-saver!" -- O.A.K. Disclaimer: Mr. Gate is not Bill Gates of Microsoft. Mr. Gate is a Fictional character. Meant for light humour and not to malign anybodies image.

Who's Priya Kalbag?

...my dad stood with "magazine-with-cover" in his hands and asked me, "Who is this Priya?". "Why is it written Priya Kalbag?"... *** It was during the Bangalore ashram YES!+ adv. course. Bau told us that the wonderful magazine like rishimukh is facing losses due to "under-subscription". He requested (Ordered, you can say) every participant to subscribe for the rishimukh. Some participants jumped ahead to collect the subscriptions. (I doubt whether they have subscribed the mag.!) They rambled all the books available, tore out the papers in all possible 2 dimensional quadrilaterals and started scribbling the details of the participants for the subscription. My earlier subscription was about to end so I decided to subscribe one for myself. I wrote my real name "Omkar Kalbag" with my real Residential address and handed over Rs.200/- to the volunteer. Today I got the magazine delivered by the postman. Dad received it while I was at office. When I reached home my dad stood with "magazine-with-cover" in his hands and asked me, "Who is this Priya?". "Why is it written Priya Kalbag?" I took the magazine cover and saw that instead of my name, it was printed "Priya Kalbag". I was stunned for a moment! Did any girl play stupid prank on me. My dad is a little orthodox in such matters. Then I remembered that i had subscribed for magazine at YES!+ adv. Course. There was such a chaos among the volunteers while getting details, someone might have goofed up my details and made Priya belong to "Kalbag" family! My dad and me were rolling with laughter later. Jai Gurudev! -- O.A.K. Tree

Economics: A common sense subject

It was Sept 10th 2000, I was studying the most favorite subject among students; ECONOMICS. Exams were just around the corner. I had this book, "Managerial Economics" and spent an hour and a half studying that subject. That time I had not done YES!+ but still my face carried an expression as if I had just completed long kriya. Totally calm & serene. Nothing running in my mind... My head was blank like a recently formatted hard-disk! This subject used to make me introspect a lot. (now I know why I am spiritually inclined!). It used to make me think deeper about the existence of life, human beings and finally, economics. WHY in the earth did humans create ECONOMICS??? It after graduation (in Commerce) I joined Chartered Financial Analyst. CFA in short. Here again Economics came to haunt me! But this time I decided to confront the subject and settle the score once and for all. Fortunately, I found a professor of economics who shared similar interests. He too liked to shoo away the fear of economics from the students' heart. The very first introduction he gave about economics was by saying: "Economics is a common sense subject" Then I started a journey into the world of economics. I started seeing the same boring subject in a different perspective. It now appeared exciting and colorful. This subject really influences people's lives and the nation at large. And now that I have started blogging on variety of subjects, I thought, why not have a posts on economics that brings a paradigm shift in understanding of the subject in a beautiful way? Really this is one subject that anyone with common sense can understand. The subject of Economics is really quite mystical. Even after years of economics evolution people still ask the fundamental question; What to produce? How to produce? How much to produce? It is just like asking the ownself; Who am I? What is the purpose of my life? I really hope you are not asking yourself "why am i reading this?" Enjoy Economics! Enjoy Life!

What is the purpose of knife?

Long back I attended a session with Bawa. It was really hilarious session with deep knowledge! One participant who happened to be a volunteer from a long time asked bawa a question on being a better volunteer and doing better seva. Bawa suddenly asked the person: What is the purpose of knife? The participant hesitated for a while and then replied: To cut...food.. perhaps? Bawa gave his "cool dude" smile and nodded in disagreement. He said the purpose of knife is to be Sharp... just to be sharp. It is the job of the chef to cut. Guru is the chef and you are the instrument, knife, in other words. What to cut, when to cut, how to cut that guru will decide. Your purpose is just to be sharp. Tell me which chef will like to work with a blunt knife?? The moment you think you are the doer (or that my purpose is to cut...) you get tired due to the doership in you. Just know that you are just guru's instrument. Nothing else. Just be SHARP! Jai Gurudev

"Crash" Course

I am a die-hard supporter of Firefox, Worlds best internet browser. Few months back I downloaded the latest version from the Mozilla stable, Firefox 3. But from few week I have been experiencing browser crash. Firefox, per se, is a very strong & sturdy browser. So frequent crashes is simply not its nature! In case you are experiencing the same problems then do refer to the tips & tricks I have mentioned below. But please continue using Firefox 3. 1. That's the way the cookie crumbles: Cookies in the computing world are used for authenticating, session tracking (state maintenance), and maintaining specific information about users, such as site preferences or the contents of their electronic shopping carts. A cookie named aus2.mozilla.org is the culprit that causes frequent crashes in Firefox 3. Especially when the Firefox checks for the latest version the users get this message: "AUS: Update XML File Malformed (200)". To solve this problem just go to Tools (Obviously, in Firefox application ) >> Options. Click on the Privacy Tab. Click the button Show Cookies. Scroll down to the named(famed) cookie, aus2.mozilla.org and click once on it. Below there is a button named Remove cookie, Click it. Now close that dialog box, and in the same Privacy tab there is a button named, Exceptions. Here you can block the cookie. Just type, "aus2.mozilla.org" in the field and click Block. There you go, now your Firefox is safe from frequent crashes. The other reasons for the crash can be 2. Not using the latest version of the Firefox... That's Firefox 3.0.1, for newbies. You can also click on the Orange colored "Upgrade now" button, just next to this post, to get the latest Firefox. 3. Problematic or Outdated Extensions or Plugins: Some extensions have been reported as problem creators, like:

Firefox 3:

AVG SafeSearch, XPL LinkScanner, RealPlayer Browser Record Plugin (installed with RealPlayer), ThinkVantage Password Manager (see the Thinkpad forums), PicLens Free Download Manager. Personally, I use AVG Antivirus. AVG has this Link Scanner which scans the links generated from the search results on Google, Yahoo, MSN etc. This has caused Firefox 3 to crash many times. Just uninstall this extension! Note: Firefox does not provide ActiveX support and if you have an old ActiveX plugin installed, you may experience problems such as crashes. See ActiveX for more information. And for those using Windows platform, the VLC Media Player Plugin may conflict with the Windows Media Player plugin when playing WMP files. You will need to disable or remove the VLC Media Player Plugin to prevent this. 4. Malware: Virus & Spywares: A file named nsBrowserOpt.dll is notorious to cause enough trouble for Firefox 3 users. To eliminate this file, Exit Firefox. Then go to My Computer or Windows Explorer. Browse to the directory: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\components. Delete the file nsBrowserOpt.dll. 5. Conflicts with... Google Desktop: Uninstall older version of GD and install the latest version. Downloading: If you are experiencing problems while downloading then the download history is got corrupted. To fix it first close the all Firefox application. Open the Firefox profiles folder. This folder is available here; C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\ folder (for Windows Vista users) or the C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\ folder (Windows XP/2000), which depends on your Windows user account name. Note that the Application Data Folder is mostly hidden. Alternative way is to go to Start>Run... Type %APPDATA% ("%" sign is necessary!) If the Profiles folder contains multiple folders, open the folder for the active profile. In the profile folder, find the downloads.rdf file and delete it. That should take care of the most common problems. And MOST IMPORTANTLY, when Firefox crashes it generates a crash report and starts the Mozilla Crash Report. Most Firefox users cancel it!. Do NOT make that mistake. More the reports reach Mozilla, the better it is for us. As we can get a bug free update of the Firefox next time. Enjoy Firefox. Promote Firefox. -- O.A.K. Tree Source: Mozilla

|| Ganpati bappa morya ||

For the first time in my life I participated in carrying the Ganesha Idol, attending the puja and the elating satsang in the evening. All the volunteers of Dombivli YES!+ team contributed the ideas and funds to start the YES!+ Ganeshotsav in Dombivli. This was our first Ganesh utsav. We had a battalion of exuberant guys and gals from the July 26th, 2008 YES!+ Course who volunteered for the exciting event. Hats off to Sagar, Sai, Nikita & Harshal who took all the initiative, responsibility and the truly deserving credit to make the event, super hit. On Ganesh Chaturthi, we got a pandit to worship the idol. He was an old stoic man, who guided our friend Ram in performing the puja. He explained the meaning of the ganesh puja. He said that once we install the idol of ganesha, we are in a way putting (Breathing, you can say) life into the idol. Then we offer the beloved lord with fruits, sweets, flowers and the most delicious.... MODAKs. Just the way the lord offers us with all the goddies (and some challenges) in our lives. We then do the Aarti. Divnity, in the form of sun and moon do the same aarti to us. During the visarjan or "Uninstallation" you can say, we take the life back from the idol and dip the idol into a well or a river. And we make a promise to meet Ganesha next year. ...Ganpati Bappa Morya... pudchya varshi lawkar yaa...

Gannesh utsav pics will soon be embedded in this post.

It is really amazing how humans have evoled a unique way of playing with nature. My master, H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, has described the meaning of pooja (worship) as "Jiska janm poornata se hota hai" meaning "That which is born out of fullness or abundance". You see, one cannot worship or celebrate when there is a lack. Worship or celebration happens when there is abundance. When you realize that you yourself are truly divine then the abundance dawns. And the life becomes a celebration. The guru's job is to make you realize the divinity within you. Jai Gurudev! P.S. I took out some time and tweaked some settings in the blog. The resulting effects are changes in the background pattern and the borders of the main body of the blog. Some more changes are on the way -- O.A.K. Tree