പ്രേംജിയുടെ ഏകലോചനം

Thanks to my friend S for sending me this.. Picture of the Malayalam actor , (late) "Bharat" Premji - Best actor National award winner for the film Piravi - that came in the malayalam newspaper "Mathrubhumi" of Jan 20 , 2007 . ( as a matter of fact I have a faint memoy of seeing this picture as a kid, in the same newspaper.. may be they "reused" it, but really worth it

(to know more about "Piravi" see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piravi
http://rajeev2004.blogspot.com/2006/06/memories-of-emergency-piravi-rajan.html
http://rajeev2004.blogspot.com/2006/04/obituary-prof-eachara-warrier.html )

So whats so special about this pic ? Here's from my friends note

The picture illustrates a particular acting feat called"EkalOcanam" - to make sense of this ( as given in the instructions below the picture ) first cover the left half of theactor's face with one of your palms and look at the right half. Then coverthe right half of the face and look at the left. You can notice orthogonal expressions in the two halves.

Purdah : interesting article by Taslima

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20070122&fname=Col+Taslima+%28F%29&sid=1&pn=1

A really bold article (Oh, when has she not been bold ? )

Would like to put together a couple of points here, which makes this lady catch my attention

First, from the article: (and I quote)

A couple of months ago, at the height of the purdah controversy, Shabana Azmi asserted that the Quran doesn't say anything about wearing the burqa. She's mistaken. This is what the Quran says:

(And she quotes... thank You Taslima, for Outlook would have never allowed a "non-Muslim" to quote the Quran for .... you know... "I is a RoP " .. may the truth RIP !!wonder how Shabana wud react to this !!)

There are many views on why and how the Islamic purdah started. One view has it that Prophet Mohammed became very poor after spending all the wealth of his first wife. At that time, in Arabia, the poor had to go to the open desert and plains for relieving themselves and even their sexual needs. The Prophet's wives too had to do the same. He had told his wives that "I give you permission to go out and carry out your natural work". (Bukhari Hadis first volume book 4 No. 149). And this is what his wives started doing accordingly. One day, Prophet Mohammed's disciple Uman complained to him that these women were very uncomfortable because they were instantly recognisable while relieving themselves
Umar proposed a cover but Prophet Mohammed ignored it. Then the Prophet asked Allah for advice and he laid down the Ayat (33:59) (Bukhari Hadis Book 026 No. 5397).This is the history of the purdah, according to the Hadis. But the question is: since Arab men too relieved themselves in the open, why didn't Allah start the purdah for men? Clearly, Allah doesn't treat men and women as equals, else there would be purdah for both! Men are higher than women. So women have to be made walking prisons and men can remain free birds.

( Ha... that was for the owners and the customers of the Surayya Fashion Purdahs in my part of the world - India>Kerala>Malabar)

My question to Shabana and her supporters, who argue that the Quran says nothing about purdah is: If the Quran advises women to use purdah, should they do so? My answer is, No. Irrespective of which book says it, which person advises, whoever commands, women should not have purdah. No veil, no chador, no hijab, no burqa, no headscarf. Women should not use any of these things because all these are instruments of disrespect.

(Well, over here, I do not fully agree with the second part.. just as one should not force to use purdah, one shud not force not to use it either... if some one decides to live their life forever (out of personal choice) inside those sacks, so be it .. )

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Anyways, couple of other interesting points about Taslima



http://www.newkerala.com/news4.php?action=fullnews&id=10758

On Surayya's decision to embrace Islam, Nasreen said: "I asked her why did you do that. She was silent. I asked whether she regretted it. She said 'yes'." Nasreen said Surayya was now in a cage and she should have the freedom to "live the life she likes".

(Well Surayya later denied it... of course, for if not, she will have a fatwa on her, now that she has fallen into the trap )

And more bold statements

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1688192/posts

‘The Islam religion and their scriptures are out of place and out of time. It still follows the 7th century laws and is hopeless. The need of the hour is not reformation but revolution,’ said Nasreen interacting with reporters here.

----------------------------------------------------
Well, not without reactions :

http://www.cybernoon.com/DisplayArticle.asp?section=fromthepress&subsection=inbombay&xfile=January2007_inbombay_standard11921

“Taslima should be thrown out of the country,” AIMPLB member Kamal Farooqi said. “The article written by her in Outlook magazine was derogatory and outrageous.”Farooqi said the AIMPLB will soon approach the external affairs ministry to ask that Taslima be thrown out of India, where she has lived since she fled Bangladesh in 1994 after receiving death threats for her novel “Lajja”.

Many a time truth hurts, doesn't it ?

postscript to the ISRO post

Just received the following comment from kaushik, by email

BTW I talked to a leading ISRO guy few days back. He has been in all of ISRO's major projects. His complain was ISRO is not getting good quality people. If you look at ISRO scientists and engineers you will find less than 1% are from iit's or countries top colleges. The poeple in ISRO (atleast the one who joined in last 10-15 years are) are not the mmost talented people India can offer. I remember when DRDO came to IIT KGP, hardly anyone sat for their interview, the best came to US and the second best wnet for highly paid jobs or IIM. It would be nice if you can write something on this.

kaushik

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When I was a kid, sometime I learnt that the tea that we get in the shops is "third grade" ... the best quality are exported . Same is the case with cashews...

Not just food material I guess - I agree with kaushik that its the "nth" best that an organisation like DRDO or ISRO gets - after the flux to foreign Univs, IIMs , software jobs, and so on. ( Admittedly I am no exception to that ) ...

That.. could have been the 89th reason why ISRO cud have failed ( "poverty", lack of infrastructure, too big a population, etc etc etc being a few of the other 88) and yet, ISRO has delivered .. to its best .... That in my opinion, gives added glory to ISROs achievements...

If thats what SF Chronicle wanted to bring out... then my due apologies ... am so used to the unnecessary negative twist in everything written abt India, not just by "foreigners", but our own esteemed journos

cannot but put a negative twist !

SF Chronicle on India's space program and the recent launch

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/11/MNGLMNGFEQ1.DTL

( by the way, what on earth is a .dtl extension ?!)

India's space agency launched a rocket Wednesday that represented two significant firsts for the country's fledgling space program -- the first multisatellite launch and the first attempt to retrieve a rocket from orbit around Earth.

In between all the praises, they HAVE to put the negative spin ..

Although developing a space program infrastructure within India may not have obvious connection to the country's development -- one-third of India still lives on less than $1 a day -- it is bringing India together with the United States and the European Space Agency, cooperating on a lunar orbiter planned for 2008.

Oh yeah, if the Brits had not looted us for their "Industrial revolution", we wud have been still one of the richest countries in the world... and shouldn't you see the other side of it - that you can still live in India at less that a $1 a day.. hey we even run schools for just a dollar a day
( courtesy, the 20,000+ ekalvidyalayas - http://www.ekal.org ) .. our railways transports numbers over half the population of australia EVERYDAY , our kumbhmelas have numbers comparable to the population of Canada, assembling in ONE town, and there no major problems, no major epidemic breakout .....

Perhaps unlnowingly, SFC has a nice comparison in the last para, of the country which has learned to live (and let live) with the minimum, and the other,... oh well

Despite limited resources -- India's space agency has an annual budget of $850 million, compared with $16.4 billion for NASA -- India has become a global leader in orbiting communications, remote sensing and meteorological satellites

കാവ്യയുടെ കവിതകള്

പാലക്കാടിനേയും മലപ്പുറത്തിനേയും വിഭജിക്കുന്ന തൂതപ്പുഴയുടെ തീരത്തുള്ളൊരു കൊച്ചു ഗ്രാമം .. അതാണെന്ടെ ജന്മനാടു .. സെപ്തെംബറില് നാട്ടിലായിരുന്നപ്പൊള് ഒരു കാര്യം എന്തേ ശ്രദ്ധയില് പെട്ടു . ആ കൊച്ചു ഗ്രാമത്തിലുള്ള എന്ടെ ബന്ധുക്കളില് പലര്ക്കും വളരെ നല്ല കഴിവുകളുണ്ടു .. പക്ഷെ പലപ്പൊഴും അതു പ്രകടീപ്പിക്കുവാന് വേണ്ടത്ര അവസരങ്ങ്ള് ഇല്ലാതെ പോകുന്നു

Okay, for the sake of my non-Malayalam readers ... When I was at my birth-village back in Kerala this september, I was thinking about how talentd some of my relatives were. An uncle of mine - when he was in his tenties - used to draw beauitiful pictures, but now his job has nothing to do with his talent and he simply dosn't draw anymore. An aunt of mine has an amazing singing talent, but is simply satisfied as a housewife

Well, that was the older generation... how about m cousin... One of them draws such pictures, which look really lifelike ... - thank God he is indeed trying to pursue a career in art: Godspeed . Another cousin is a great dancer - thank God, she did go to many of the Youth festival competitions... I guess she herself is not that interested in a career in dance, but instead want to be a journaist - which naturally is not going too well with a rather "do a BEd or MSc, become a school-teacher and get married" attitude of the family ... lets see where that heads

And finally comes my li'l cousin - Kavya - she is in her second or third - so must be ~7-8 yrs old
Just as her name suggests, (and apparently as per her astrology, she is supposed to be a great poet) , her passion is in poems .. This time around when I met her, I gave her a notebook, gave her a random topic.. and there.. she just starts writing.. no time spent on thinking or searching for words "instantaneous" .. nimisha-kavi as her astro had apparently predicted ..

Of course you can't expect an 8 year old to have perfect poems with vrutham and melody, but atleast there seems to be no dearth of words

22 topics later ,she was still ready with a pen, but I was at a loss for topics ! Here are a couple of pages of her scribbled poetry.. and wonderful ideas - clock: a place where the "big" and the "small" live together :-) but my favorite ? the one on Mother : "muthune pottunna pavizhamaanamma"... meaning "Mother is like a shell which protects a pearl inside"

So here is my bit for Kavya's kavyas !

joke of the day

Found on Rajeev's blog, as a comment to one of the items that I had sent him

http://rajeev2004.blogspot.com/2006/12/separate-iits-iims-kvs-for.html

If we were in Pakistan our options in education would be - IIT (Islamic Institute of Terrorism), JEE (Jehadic Entrance Exam), IIM (Institute of Infiltration Management), CAT (Career in Al Qaida and Taliban), IAS (Iraq after Saddam), MTech (Master in Terror Technology), GATE (General Aptitude in Terror and Extremism).

For once, some one came up with more creative names than what I did :-)

subhashitas again

subhsashita-0

For the discussion at http://www.speaksanskrit.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=237

subhashitam - 1

subhashitam - 2

3

Source : http://www.geocities.com/prashanth_k_blr/Subhashitani/index.html

NRI divorces- a serious issue

Prelude: This post took a lot of "shud i or shud i not" , for I know it concerns many of my close friends.. But then, the intention is not to hurt any of their feelings, who may be regular readers of this blog, but try to address an issue that I believe is snowballing into one with serious implications for the generations to come, in addition to of course a personal interest I have to see it to that it be addressed in the best possible way ....




I was at my cousins place in south Jersey the last weekend and a mention came up about a distant relative of ours who was divorced after 6 yrs of marriage, in Mumbai .. the reason ? "it just did not work out" and then the conversation hit upon divorces in US.. they were telling me case after cases of NRI marriages that broke up..

Some one married his cousins wife.... bunch of other close friends of my cousin got divorced or are seperated... about second marriages .. and unfortunately, the last few months saw some of my own close friends in similar situation... "falling out of love" and hence seperating, after 5 or 6 yrs of marriage,... marriages leading upto the verge of divorce within 5-6 months.. another case of divorce of someone after about 20 yrs of marriage (and who has a young kid now...) ....
To the extend that almost every 1 in 4 married Indian in US whom I know seem to have some serious problem with marriage ..

Alarmed, I look up some statistics and it turns out I am just being a live victim of the percentages... There is in fact an entire blog/website on NRI divorces and I quote

Between 10 to 15 percent of all Indian American marriages culminate in divorce or separation. ( http://www.nridivorce.com/index.php?p=50 )

There are around 18 million NRIs in the US, including illegal immigrants. For about $500 one can get a divorce in the US in less than a week. The total number of NRI divorces in the US is over 15,500 ( http://www.nridivorce.com/index.php?cat=5 )

These may not be accurate to the dot, but I look around and things seem to correlate. And what could be the reasons ? Well, may be increased career oriented lifestyles, may be effects of being product of nuclear families, may be the effect from the near 50% (??) average american divorce rate ...... In India too, may be in the Metros the rate is on the rise, but then I think overall it has still not reached such high numbers. Perhaps the "society" aspect in India - be it a little bit of pressure or be it the consoling hands of the society around may be one factor still keeping it low

But then, isn't this an indication of a more "liberal" Indian Amaerican soceity ? Well, well, I am not sure if liberalism should be at the cost of one of the most important values that we as Indians have cherished - that of family. I have even heard Americans say, (yes, told me ) that some of them like to marry Indians because they think the family will be more stable
No, this is not to say that those who are "suffering" from unadjustable marriage should continue to suffer.. but at the same time, such high numbers makes me feel that there has been a huge change in the "tolerance levels" .. and adjustability factor.

So what do I propose. Well, I haven't given much thought to it yet, and those with interesting thoughts may post them in the comments section, but some of them that I can think off

1) I think there is a huge "old generation" Indian couples , many of whom are now leading a retired life. Many have their kids married off... Perhaps they can form some kind of a collective, to address the issues of the young married couple... before it gets to the stage of divorce

2) Seminars and workshops on the issue... ummm .. with a sincere motive..

3) I think institutions like temples and other religious missions (like chinmaya mission) too should take up an active role.. be it by providing counselling centers or even a bit of philosophy...

4) And of course, all the necessary "getting to know each other as much as u can" before the marriage ,....

Well, at the end of the day its too personal an issue.. and with a 1 : 6 chance of an NRI marriage breaking down , anyone... yeah, pretty much anyone could be part of it... One can just hope that with some community level efforts, the ratio can be reduced, in a natural way !

sarve bhavantu sukhinAH

and yet another dec 13 .....

And yet another Dec 13 passes by......

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/dec-13-victims-kin-return-medals/28340-3.html

like 'em or not...

Like them or not, you can't ignore them ...

It all started with the Meera Jasmine petition.. One of the comments read as follows :

Stopping from entering temples is a still prevailing blind belief. Each human has the right to enter temples. Have you heard about the Pavakkulam Temple at Cochin? This is owned and run by RSS, and allow everyone, Indian or foreign, Male or female and Hindu or non-Hindu to come and perform prayers to the almighty. In the 1930s our society was brave and fought for "kshethra pravesanam" but now, the population has started hiding in their shells and not acting for the rights. I am a rashtrita Swayam Sevak sangh worker and the State Joint Secretary of Swadeshi Science Movement, I fully support the protesters who are with Meera Jasmin for entering temple.

------------------------

That was signed by one Dr Balaram from the Cochin Univ of Sc and Tech (CUSAT) .. I was naturally curious to know if what he stated was the offiicial stand of RSS on the issue... After a few email exchanges, he wrote to me one day, among other things

I don't know if you have noticed three important points refered by RSS.

1. RSS demanded for appointing Dalit poojaries in temples including major ones in India. (This was in a press conference dated two weeks back from New Delhi)

2. RSS demands a discussion on temple entry issue of women in Sabarimala. in this the opinion of RSS is " ladies should decide if they want to enter there or not, it is not the power of men to stop them". (pls refer to speech of P Parameswaran in a public meeting two weeks back, Mathrubhumi reported it)

3. Members of all religions should be free to enter all templesin Kerala. (Parameswarji's same speech is reference).

hope you have cleared doubts.i also was an orthodox Hindu, but it is Sangh which changed me.

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The first was not really news to me.. I have heard that VHP of Tamil Nadu has trained over thousand non-Brahmin priests.. The second, was, interesting... and the third, even more (well, did the petition have any effect ?!?! my guess is as good as yours ..... )

(Note: Don't mix up the drama by some kannada actress with the general issue of Sabarimala entry to women )

---------------------------------------

I tried finding the actual references to the above, and I did for two of them

1) http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/238039.cms
RSS for Dalit head priests in temples

2) http://southasianmedia.net/cnn.cfm?id=339263&category=Religion&Country=INDIA
'No reason to ban women from Sabarimala'

So that much is official !! The last one, well, Balaramji has promised me to send the scanned copy of the Malayalam newspaper in which Parameswaranji's speech came... lets see :-)

Sanskrit Mottos

Posting the Image here, for the discussion at
http://www.speaksanskrit.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=238

Click on the pic for a better resolution view

thanksgiving redefined

Sitting in the world where one Turkey gets pardoned so that scores of other Turkeys can be killed....where you hardly utter the word "thanks" during those midnite queues and early morning rush and push for a discount sale...... I was looking for something to redefine the "holidays" .. apart from the spilled over work of course

And then it struck.. my thanksgiving this year is dedicated to Guru Tegh Bahadur, whose martyrdom day falls on the 24th Nov (friday) this year.... (I think its a "optional" national holiday in India) .......

Here's a bit from swordoftruth , a portal that sadly doesn't seem to exist anymore

Aurangzeb decided to Islamize India as fast as possible, starting with Kashmir. He had a devil's brain and he devised all kinds of artifices to get his way. Writes Sir Jadu Nath Sarkar in his renowned five volume History of Aurangzeb: "In Kashmir, Hindus and Muslims used to intermarry, and the wife, whatever might have been her father's creed, was cremated or buried as her husband happened to be a Hindu or Islamite. But in October, 1634, Shah Jahan forbade the custom and ordered that every Hindu who had taken a Muslim wife must either embrace Islam and be married anew to her, or he must give her up to be wedded to a Muslim. This order was rigorously enforced."

The rise was to turn the Hindus into Muslims by virtue of political power. In any event, it was still a 'slow' process from Aurangzeb's point of view. He wanted to turn the world into a Koranic world of Muslims only and those who still did not opt for Islam, had no place in the kingdom.
'Aurangzeb ordered that every Hindu must become a Muslim under pain of death. The Hindus wanted a period of six months to consider the proposal, which was granted. Aurangzeb also issued a fiat that those who refused to be Mohammedans would be put to the sword and a wholesale order was issued to kill the Brahmins and collect their janoys or sacred threads, as proof of the slaughter.

Aurangzeb demanded that enough Kashmiri Pandits were to be slaughtered every day, so that their sacred threads weigh at least 1.25 maunds (46 kgs). The weight of a single thread is very small and on calculation, it was found out that at least 25,000 Kashmiri pandits had to be killed every day in order to fulfill the requirement of the 1.25 maunds of thread. Naturally, there was panic among the Pandits. They met Guru Tegh Bahadur at Anandpur Sahib on May 25, 1675. They prayed to the Guru and said: "Our lot has become unbearable. You are rightly known as Hind ki Chader or Champion of the Hindus. We have been given six months' time in which to make our choice between Islam and death. That period is about to end...We have come to you for help, guidance and protection. O Champion of the Hindus!"

Naturally, the Guru was plunged into deep thought. He noticed the sad faces of the Brahmins. His young eight-year-old son, Govind Rai (the future Guru Gobind Singh) asked his father why these good men looked so worried? What has happened!

Continuing the rest of the story from a different source

"Guru ji, I see the acutely sad faces of the Sangat and you are silent and in deep thought. What is the problem?" asked Gobind Rai to his father. Gobind is about 9 years old at this stage.
Guru ji slowly turn to his son and explain the situation as concisely as possible.

"Baata (Son), this is sangat from Kashmir. They are Hindus who have been friends of Sikhs since the time of Guru Nanak. They have a very serious problem on their hands" said Guru ji.
Gobind Rai replied, "Pita ji, you are the Guru of the entire world ("Jagat Guru"). You will know of a solution to all problems"

"Baata, Emperor Aurangzeb has given them an ultimatum – If they do not become Muslims, he will kill them all", explained Guru ji.

Guru ji continued, "Some well-known Religion person ("Mahapurakh") will have to make a sacrifice to stop this butchery. We have to find a supreme soul who will die so as to awaken the sleeping consciousness of the people of Hind".

"Pita ji, there is an easy answer to this problem. You are the most spiritually aware person in whole of Hind. You can make that sacrifice", answered Gobind Rai.

Guru ji was pleased to hear these words as it confirmed that his son had reached a suitable age to become the next Guru, and that Guru ji's work on Earth had been completed.

Guru ji addressed the Pandits, "Go and tell Aurangzeb that if he can convert Guru Tegh Bahadar to Islam, they will all convert. Otherwise he should leave them alone"

The Pandits were delighted that a solution was found and duly informed Emperor Aurangzeb of the decision. Aurangzeb was delighted that by converting one person, he would without any further delay have the conversion of many 1000's to Islam. Accordingly he summoned his officers to arrest Guru Tegh Bahadar.


In the summer of 1675, the Guru, along with some of his companions were finally brought to Delhi and asked to convert to Islam or else face the penalty of death. Guru ji was also asked to perform a miracle. Guru Tegh Bahadur averred that he would rather sacrifice his life than give up his faith and his freedom or belief or perform a miracle. Thus, under Aurangzeb's orders, Guru ji and his companions were tortured. The Guru was chained and imprisoned in a cage and was tortured in the cruellest and the most inhuman ways for five long days. In order to terrorise him further into submission, one of his distinguished devotees (Bhai Mati Das) was sawn alive, another (Bhai Dyal Das) was boiled in the cauldron and the third (Bhai Sati Das) was roasted alive before the Guru.

Finally, the Guru himself was beheaded, under imperial warrant, in broad daylight, in the middle of a public square, the most prominent public place in India, called Chandni Chowk, of Delhi, on the charge that he was a stumbling block preventing the spread of Islam in the Indian subcontinent. The exact location of the beheading is marked by Gurdwara Sis Ganj in Delhi. His martyrdom was yet another challenge to the Sikh conscience. It was then realized that there could be no understanding between an insensate power imbrued with blood and a proud people wedded to a life of peace with honour. The sacrifice roused the Hindus from their passive silence and gave them the fortitude to understand the power that comes from self-respect and sacrifice. Guru Tegh Bahadur thus earned the affectionate title of "Hind-di-Chadar" or the Shield of India.

karma and the reward

When I got a mail in a group that I am part off, asking if anyone would volunteer pick someone up from BWI airport on Sunday at 6.30 am, and drop him of at Montgomery village health center, I was a bit hesitant... - for one, I would have to get up around 5 am on a Sunday.. and for another, I was to pick up some one flying a red-eye flight from CA, and he being in his seventies, would need some break to freshen up, before I can take him to his destination, and that mean a back-home time beyond 10 am... [in fact u can check the time stamp on the post :-) ]

But then I knew perhaps I was the one in a best position to be able to do so, and hence I volunteered.. never knew exactly what the person whom I was picking up (whom, I never knew until a few days back either) was here for... all I knew was that he was here to meet someone on sunday(today) and fly back to CA this evening .. so as I started on sunday morning I just took it as another chance to drive around a bit, listening to some nice music, and perhaps chat with some one in Samskritam (yes, in his seventies, he is now enjoying speaking and learning Samskritam) .. nothing more

But then, as I knew further and further about whom he was going to meet, and when I finally met the patient at the health center, my whole perspective changed.. It was his sister (or may be cousin sister), just a year or two younger to him. Being diabetic, she has had to amputate both her legs above her knees... he was here to give her some confidence...... she looked quite gracious, sitting in her wheel chair.. well, I should actually say "kept" on her wheel chair ! her nurse took us to a visitors room where her brother could chat with her, and told us "she is doing good this morning, but make sure you do not leave her alone, please"....

As I walked back from the center to my car, I could n't help thinking two things... first a mail that I had gotten in my inbox a few weeks before (I am attaching the text of it at the end, eventho not all pts are relevant to me .. now)... and second - how my entire perspective changed when I realised that I was being a small connecting link, in a great act of compassion and care... in a small way, a nimitha (a la Gita 11.33) ... somwhere deep down, the feeling of satisfaction... of "i have made my day".....

And that naturally reminded me of this point which i heard- either on a talk on thursday on campus or on friday (at the temple by sadhvi vrnda chaitanya) about the idea of a good deed being its own reward ( parOpakAraM as the punyaphala itself) within the law of karma.... Isn't the feeling of having being able to [and being provided with enough resources like a car- a car like chetak :-) ] even a small help to some one, a gift, a reward in itself....

I am curious to find out the references , if any, of such a norm of karma anywhere in vedanta, or other philosophies of hinduism... (anyone, who knows , please let me know).....



anyways, adya prAtakAle eva dinaM sArtakaM abhavat ..... epatraM atra ArOpitaM astI

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I am thankful...

1. For the husband who snores all night, because he is at home asleep with me and not with someone else.
2. For my teenage daughter who is complaining about doing dishes, because that means she is at home & not on the streets.
3. For the taxes that I pay because it means that I am employed.
4. For the mess to clean after a party because it means that I have been surrounded by friends. 5. For the clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat.
6. For my shadow that watches me work because it means I am out in thesunshine.
7. For a floor that needs mopping, and windows that need cleaning because it means I have a home.
8. For all the complaining I hear about the government because it means that we have freedom of speech.
9. For the parking spot I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking and that I have been blessed with transportation.
10. For the noise I have to bear from my neighbours because it means that I can hear.
11. For the pile of laundry and ironing because it means I have clothes to wear.
12. For weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day because it means I have been capable of working hard.
13. For the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours because it means that I am still alive. AND FINALLY .......

for received e-mails because it means I have friends who are thinking of me, at least. HAVE A NICE DAY !!!