A True Friend - 2

And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.

Continuing this tale of my friend, he would always listen to your problems. Never was a situation or a time when he would deny you. He would always pay heed to your problems no matter what. I remembered times when he would accompany us even when he was suffering with broken bones. There was not an instance when he would give us even an inkling of his suffering. Always he was cheerful and that kind of helped us get over our blues.

I wish I could get back to him or thank him for what he did for me in that brief period of camaraderie we had. I really yearn for those days, which unfortunately didnt last for long. Afterall the good things in life are short-lived.

When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

Old Court House, St Louis, MO

View of the Old Court House from top of the Gateway Arch :)

Gateway Arch, St. Louis, MO

A True Friend

I have been reading this book called "the Prophet" by Kahlil Jibran. And since I started reading it, I have been reading it since then. I read it when I am really down and it kind of cheers me up.

So yeah coming back to the topic, I read this chapter in this book on friendship:
http://www.katsandogz.com/onfriends.html
and it reminds me of a friend on mine. A very close friend of mine, who has been through a lot of trouble already: thanks to his friends. And due to some reasons , I prefer not to unravel his name. He really doesnt care if his name is released or not, and he doesnt believe in publicity either. And I respect him for his humbleness and commitment to friendship.

So this particular chapter in the book, speaks about an ideal friendship. And I am planning to exemplify Kahlil Jibran's verses to my friend. Because he is a living example of all the qualities of friendship mentioned in Kahlil's Chapter.

Well, I met him in the most unrealistic circumstances: when we were going through our ragging period back in India. For all those who arent aware of 'ragging' well its a seniors way of welcoming their juniors in College, mostly prevalent in Indian Colleges and Universities. It used to be really harsh as in some circumstances, it would scale the greatest heights of bullying sometimes physical too.

Since I started late, I wasnt aware of this practice myself, and it was him who, kind of trained me to deal with this menace.


...to be continued...

Chicago Marina on Lake Michigan :)

BNSF Railroads -- Old Memoirs :(

Chodo Kal Ki Batein

A Song dedicated to my country my pride : India :D

Rapid Angioplasty

Know someone who is prone to heart-attack or has a feeling of approaching heart-attack or may be he/she already had an heart-attack. Now there is new hope, if done promplty within 90 minutes, you could rush the sufferer to the nearest hospital equipped with Rapid Angioplasty and have hope to saving the deceased.

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/heartdisease/3095/rapid-angioplasty-could-save-your-life-after-heart-attack/

Moulana Ali AS on Omniscient :)

One who imagines himself to be all-knowing will surely suffer on account of his ignorance.
~Ameer Ul Mumineen AS :D

No need to read Socrates, afterall Moulana Ali AS is all knowing. Rasulallah SA himself said:

("Ana madinat-ul-ilm wa Ali-yun baaboha")
"I am the city of knowledge and Ali is the gate"

Coldplay - Violet Hill

Another Classic from Coldplay !!! .....how can I not like them :P

Best Sleeping Airport

Recently while flying to New York from Peoria, my flight got delayed, not unusal. The flight was actually delayed to such an extent that I was surely going to miss my connection from O'Hare(Chicago) to LaGuardia (New York City).

Nothing helped offcourse with United nothing ever does. Neither being a frequent flyer nor Mileage plus membership did any good. They did give me an option : fly to Chicago and wait for 12 hours to catch the next morning flight to LaGuardia.

The attendant after my continuos naggigng did advice me that the flight I was flying in was cancelled or delayed 96% of time. She had no answer when I asked her why this particular service was even offered.

Frustration abound, this has been an eternal bane at Peoria Airport and till now I havent found a flight which departed or arrived on time.

Coming back to my trip, when I was told blatantly that the flight is delayed almost every day, they still didnt humble me with a complimentary overnight stay at a motel out in Chicago. So I kind of thought about it and my curiosity intrigued me to search for the best sleeping airport.

Thanks to the ever growing survey world, which sometimes I feel is a vocation of those unfit to do anything constructive, I landed at a site which actually had done such a survey :).

p.s: While browsing through slashdot yesterday I actually read a news in which AC Nielsen signed a 1.3 Billion Dollar service agreement with TCS. AC Nielsen is a survey and tv-rating giant. I wonder where TCS would come into picture: contracted TCS employees might have to sit and watch American TV shows to analyze and rate them lol ;).

Here is the link to the top sleeping airports site:
http://www.sleepinginairports.com/

And offcourse there isnt a single US Airport in the top ten. Dissapointing that O'Hare didnt make it in the best list, instead it was third in the list of Worst Airport to sleep in.

Guess which one topped the list of worst airport to sleep in:
Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai, India :D It still sends jitters down my spine when I recall my experiences at Mumbai Airport, from the corrupt custom officials to leaking ceilings. Could write a whole post on it someday :)

dump truck running over a four wheel drive suv

Thats the CAT 793......Ginormous :P

Gender Bias - China

If I can remember, in one of my class back in college where we studied about Pacific Rim Nations. The most impressive were the four Asian Tigers Nations : Singaport, Taiwan, South Korea, and Hong Kong (which now belogs to China though).

Well another important aspect was China, which is the most populated country in the world. What was surprising was the laws implemented by the Chinese in which they strictly enforced "one child per family" policy.

I thought then it was a good idea to curb population explosion and wished similar laws in India. Recently this news kind of got me thinking.
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=06d65840-0997-482e-a84d-b09b61a7b0e5

There is a huge gender bias in China with 37 million more Men than Women. This is stratling because inspite of curbing population this has resulted in growth of violence because of unemployment. And also one child (male) who was thought to be the bread-winner is now responsible for 6 parents: parents, maternal grand-parents and paternal grand-parents.

Ironical isnt it, China which is proclaimed by media as the next super-power is actually suffering from such critical problems.

Makes me feel releaved that such a law was not implemented in India, where 70 percent of population resides in villages. And among the 70 percent I am sure there are 90 percent who still consider female as a burden. Eventually such a law would exacerbate this issue.

And also the face of Indian Woman is changing too, thanks to Television:

http://jargoneer.blogspot.com/2008/06/empowerment-through-television.html

2008 BMW GINA Light Visionary Model Premiere promo video

Someday I dream of owning this.......Someday !!!!!!!

Omniscient - No No

True Wisdom is in knowing you know nothing !!!!
~Socrates~

Kahlil Gibran on Friends :)

And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.

~The Prophet~
By Kahlil Gibran

Macy's Fireworks ...NYC

Capitol Hill, Washington DC

Niagara Falls & American Falls :)

Caterpillar : Making Progress possible in India

Check out this recent news:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080626/caterpillar_india_investment.html?.v=1

Whats more exciting the focus is on production and manufacturing of Off-Highway Trucks :D. This will definitely boost India's infrastructure growth :)

to give you
an idea of how a Cat 793 looks like:

Ratatouille, Le Festin

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBe2jvEbGr8

Sent from my iPhone

Amateur Photography :)